The Year of Girls and Defeating Dark Lords Part I
by New Upsetter
Summary: Harry's 6th year-out of school. Harry has lived a secret life. I promised flower 123 that I would post this story up on this website so that she could read it, so here it is. I plan to update the first several chapters very soon.
1. I Quit

AN: Wow, I posted this story about 10 minutes ago and I already have a review Harry Potter is an Abomination, not reviewing my story but telling me it is not too late. Anyway, I'm also happy to see that in 10 minutes 14 people have looked at this. YAY! It pleases me so. I posted this chapter specifically for Flower123, who requested it. I hope to get the other chapters up in the week and then go back and edit the first several which I've always thought were a little off compared to the rest of the story. I'm pretty sure I was writing a different story in the beginning and then it took on a life of its own. And someone pointed out to me that the carburetor is not under the car. Oops. But for those who also do not know cars, Enjoy!

\-\-\-\-\

I Quit

"We're here to pick up Harry," Remus said.

"Well he's not here," said Uncle Vernon. "He's at work."

"Where?"

\-\-\-\-\

They walked up to a dumpy looking place where they apparently fixed cars. There was a really nice red car in front where someone was underneath with their legs sticking out the front.

"Hey Jake this guys carburetor is totally shot. He's going to need a new one," Harry yelled pulling himself out from under the car. He noticed the peoplethere and decided to just tell them. "I'm not going back. I quit."

"You quit? You quit what?" Remus asked walking over to him as Harry pulled himself out from under the car.

"I quit everything. I quit believing in Dumbledore's stupid lies and being so naïve. I quit moping about everyone I killed and I quit listening to everyone telling me it's not my fault. Like I really care if it is or not. It doesn't change anything. And finally, I quit school. I'm not going back with you there isn't a point. I quit being a wizard. I'm going to work here before sending myself to art school. Lovely story isn't it?" asked Harry sarcastically as he picked up a stack of papers.

Everyone stood silent for a moment as Harry ignored them. "Where's my new carburetor?" he yelled to the back room. "You wanted me to help, just get me the damn pieces," Harry muttered to himself leaning against a counter.

\-\-\-\-\-\

"Harry you can't quit being a wizard, or school for that matter. It's part of who you are," Remus said.

Harry turned to him looking angry but not looking anyone in the eye. He looked up at Remus. "How would you know? You have no idea who I am."

"Well even not knowing you I know that you're a wizard and it's not something you get rid of. Harry you have to come with us."

"I don't have to do anything. For the first time in …forever. I'm actually having a good time without something bad happening. I don't have to go through with the stupid prophecy if I don't want to."

"How do you know the prophecy?"

"Dumbledore told me right after Sirius died. What a perfect ending, to the tortured night, the speech was." Harry smiled fakely for a second and quickly dropped it and frowned to let them know he was sarcastic. He looked back at the back room and yelled for the carburetor again. It was the first time Remus had noticed how different Harry looked. He was wearing contacts instead of his glasses and his eyes looked a bit dulled but brighter than they were when he had left. He was wearing tight black jeans and fallen suspenders and some black shoes. And a T-shirt that said "many have a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude.' Leonardo Da Vinci."

A girl came out of the back room and slammed a car part in Harry's hand. "Here is your stupid carburetor," she said speaking as if she was annoyed adding a bright smile when she stopped talking.

"Thanks love," Harry said sweetly as they kissed lightly on the lips before she headed back into the back room. Harry went back over to the car.

"Girlfriend?" Remus asked surprised.

"No, I'm just friendly," Harry said, shoving him-self to the floor and onto a skateboard and slid under the car again.

"I don't have time for this," Moody said standing angrily. "Just grab him and go."

Harry didn't seem to hear him or he was just ignoring them. Remus, Moody, and Arthur went up to the car where Harry's feet were sticking out.

"You touch me, I will hurt you, with the strange power I've found," Harry said apparently knowing they were coming. Moody motioned for them to keep going.

"Get off of me," Harry yelled as Arthur and Remus dragged him outside to the limo. Moody was writing a scrawled note to his friends telling them why he was leaving. Harry struggled to get away from Remus and Arthur's hold as they dragged him to the limo and pulled him in. Moody climbed in after them and they held Harry down as they drove to Grimmuald. "Let me go," he continued, trying to bite Remus' hand to let him go.

"Harry no biting," Remus said. Harry glared at him still struggling to get away. When they pulled up to the house they dragged Harry out and Moody opened the door as they dragged Harry in, yelling at them the entire way. The portrait of Sirius' mother started yelling too, before Harry glared at it over his yells and it stopped and the curtains closed again. But nobody noticed since they couldn't hear anything over Harry's yelling.

"What is going on?" Mrs. Weasley asked walking to the hallway where they were taking Harry to his room.

"He didn't come willingly," Arthur told his wife over the yelling as Moody opened the room door. They put Harry in and closed the door as Remus and Arthur exited. The wood door dulled the yelling, as Ron and Hermione came out of Hermione's room wondering what the yelling was about.

"What's going on?" he asked wondering what the pounding on the door was from. "I thought I heard Harry."

"You did. He didn't come willingly. So now he's locked in his room," Moody said.

"You locked him up?" Hermione asked. "What is he an animal?"

The door that Harry was banging on suddenly exploded and out walked Harry, quickly running away from them as they tried to chase after him. "Get away from me," Harry yelled running down the stairs to the door and his broom suddenly appeared in his hand and he flew away quickly as the group made it to the door.

"Next time, we stun him," Moody said.

\-\-\-\-\-\

Harry made his way back to the car shop and ripped up the note that no one had found yet. He then grabbed his carburetor and went back to work as if nothing had happened.

"Harry," said a seductive voice from in front of him that he couldn't see from under the car. She pulled on the edge of his board, between his legs, and pulled him from under the car putting her legs on each side of him to sit on his waist. "Hey," she smiled. "You going anywhere tonight?" she asked.

"Not that I know of," he said, raising his eyebrows and holding himself up slightly putting his arms behind him.

"Well you are now then. You can join some others and me tonight at the clubs. It'll be fun huh? Maybe even find you a girl."

"What kind of clubs?" Harry asked.

"You'll find out," she smiled. "Someone'll pick you up at six. Where you gonna be?" she asked intrigued.

"Just pick me up here," he smiled.

She sighed and crawled closer to him leaning him back again. "Why won't you let anyone pick you up at your house? Do you live in some big mansion somewhere?"

"You don't need to know. You're new, ask Fish," Harry said, looking at her as she nonchalantly played with the bottom of Harry's shirt as if thinking of whether she should take her chances to pull it off or not. She sighed kissing his chin and neck before climbing off of him letting her hand run down his crotch first.

"Alright, I'll pick you up here. You can stay here till then. See you later," she said leaving the shop.

\-\-\-\-\-\

"Why doesn't he want to come home? I mean losing Sirius was probably terrible but why would he want to send himself to art school and quit being a wizard? He doesn't even draw."

"Sure he does. He does it all the time," said Tonks said sitting down at the table with them. "It shocks me how much people can not know about their friends." She paused and sighed. "Harry doesn't have much of a family. He has a lot of friends. Sirius was fulfilling the father like quality that Harry needed. And he didn't have a lot of time to enjoy it either. He always had some other thing hanging over his shoulders throughout the years. Harry just has a very sad life for a sixteen-year-old and he finally snapped and decided he wasn't going to do it anymore. And there's no one he's going to listen to when they tell him he's doing the wrong thing."

\-\-\-\-\

Harry stood at the bar with the other guys doing body shots with some girls as they lay on the bar. They jumped off the bar and the one Harry was doing kissed him long before smiling as she walked away.

"Harry, there are a lot of girls here. Hot ones. Why don't you just choose one and go in a corner to look up her skirt," a guy they called Fish said. He had deep blond hair that fell to his ears in waves. He had light blue eyes like water. He looked like a surfer and would do well as one in California but that is how he got the name Fish.

"I'm not that kind of guy," Harry told them.

"You just did four body shots off a girl, what are you talking about?" Harry felt someone grab his ass and flinched turning around to see a girl wave at him enticingly as she walked on. Harry waved back slightly before turning back to see the guys childishly imitating him.

"Cut it out. Look I'll find a girl," Harry said.

"Yeah, if you find a girl by the end of the night and get her to snog you in the back, I'll give you 20 pounds."

"You're on. And I would make sure I have money with me if I were you."

\-\-\-\-\-\

An hour later, not even the end of the night, Harry was in the back room snogging the hot chick he did body shots with at the bar that ended up being the same one to grab his ass.

"You owe him 20 pounds now," another guy said to Fish. Fish slapped him up side the head. "I don't know why you keep betting him. You know he never loses. St. Jimmy comin' down, across the alley way," he sang quietly to himself.

Harry seemed to be having fun hovering over the top of the girl with his shirt pulled open showing off his thin body that was muscled as much as possible for him. (Eight pack abs and muscular arms. I like that.) He was pushing his fingers up the girl's shirt while kissing as much of her as he could get at.

"Uh… Harry. I'm gonna have to get home soon," she interrupted, making Harry stop with his lips on the crook between her shoulder and neck. "You're going to have to get off now." Harry pushed himself up off the couch pulling his fingers out from under her shirt. She slipped him her number and told him to call her if he ever wanted some late night fun. She gave a hard grab at his crotch before walking away. Harry got over the stuff that was going on in his pants and made it back to the guys. He held out his hand stuffing the other in his pocket to put away the number. Fish gave him 20 pounds and they headed out of the club.

Harry said bye to the guys and slipped through the back door and made it up to his room to sleep.

\-\-\-\-\-\

He woke up the next morning in a completely different bed. He rolled over to find himself in a king-sized bed he knew he recognized. This was Sirius' room.

Harry looked up at the room. Nobody was in the room with him. He climbed out of bed and listened at the door. There were an estimated amount of two people outside the door. Harry knew he could take them but decided he didn't want to right now. He put a lock on the door with his wandless magic and added a little extra lock by putting a chair against the handle just in case they found the counter spell. He then headed back to the bed and lay down, the familiar scent that the sheets gave off, like dust when you sat on them, while waiting for them to try to open the door.

He looked over to the window. He wondered whether he should escape through the window or just stay here. Harry wondered why they wanted him here so much. Most times they would leave him at the Dursleys unless he complained too much. Now they were trying everything to keep him here. Harry just grabbed something off the side table and laid back on the bed to wait for someone to figure out he couldn't have been sleeping this long.

\-\-\-\-\-\

An hour later the two in the hallway woke up and listened at the door. "I think he's awake," Moody said.

"I am," Harry said through the door. He got bored and was now leaning against the door doodling on a piece of parchment. "Don't bother trying to unlock the door. It has unbreakable seal around it and a chair against the handle. I just stayed to ask why you want me to stay. Then I'm jumping out the window and putting a protection spell on myself so you can't kidnap me again."

"Harry you're here so you don't have to be at the Dursleys," Remus said.

"I can deal with them. It's better than being expected to be a murderer."

"You're not a murderer Harry."

"I will be. You heard the Prophecy? I have. I'm going to have to lead some kind of war against Voldemort and I'm going to have to kill him. Nice life to live huh? Well I don't want it. I just want to be normal."

"Well it's not going to happen kid," Moody said. "You're the most un- normal person to walk the earth in my opinion. Get used to it."

"That's not helping," Remus scolded. "Look Harry, you're here because it's easier to get you to school from here. And you're going back. Sirius wouldn't want you to quit now. If you do, he would have died for nothing. You've gone too far now to give up like this. You have to finish it. You're going to save the world. That's a great thing and it doesn't matter if you have to kill Voldemort to do that. He's killed way more people than you claim you have and he'll only kill you if you don't kill him."

Harry sighed letting his head drop. That's what he was afraid of. As much as he didn't want to kill anyone, he didn't want to die either. The rush of death was not something he enjoyed just something he was used to.

"Harry―"

"Just go away," said Harry in a defeated tone. "I'll still be here if you return." He pulled his knees to his chin and wrapped his arms around his legs resting his head in his arms letting the tears slip through his eyes.

The two outside the door knew he wasn't going anywhere and decided to do as he wished and leave him alone. They headed back downstairs and to the breakfast table where everyone was eating.

"We think he's staying," Moody said sitting down.

"He said he would still be here when we returned to his door," Remus said.

"Can we go up and see him?" Ron asked.

"He's your friend, go ahead." Ron and Hermione quickly headed up the stairs to the room Harry was staying in. They went up against the door to listen.

"Who is it?" Harry asked dolefully, through the door.

"Ron and Hermione," Ron said.

Harry sighed. "I don't want to offend either of you, but I really don't want to talk right now," Harry said, his voice rough and cracking.

"Okay, well if you change your mind, we'll be down in the kitchen." Ron and Hermione went downstairs. Harry banged his head against the door. Harry reached inside his pocket and pulled out a phone number from last night. He liked his popularity that he had gained all on his own. He knew he was so insane he should probably see a therapist but he didn't want to. So he just decided to leave everything behind.

"Boss isn't going to be happy I'm missing work. I was supposed to be there an hour ago," Harry said to himself looking at his watch. He grabbed a spare piece of parchment from the nightstand and a quill.

_Sorry to only leave a note but I really have to get to work or my boss will kill me. I may or may not be back later so don't wait up and don't try looking for me if I don't. Just leave me alone._

_Harry_

He slid the note under the door and it turned into a bird and it flew down to the kitchen and dining room as Harry climbed out the window.

\-\-\-\-\-\

Downstairs Remus caught the flying paper. He read the note and turned to the order. "We're going to have to go after him if he doesn't come back. He's gone again."

\-\-\-\-\-\

Again that night Harry was licking liquor off a girl's stomach. He went all the way up to her mouth to kiss her hard on the mouth as she giggled slightly.

"Man he's good at that," Ron said leaning against a wall watching Harry flirt with the girls at the bar and making them giggle.

"Oh stop it Ron. We're supposed to be figuring out a way to get him to come back," Hermione said. "Where did you get fake ids anyway?"

"Remus made them. Look, how come he can't do that at school?"

"Maybe because the girls at our school aren't sluts. Besides, nobody knows who he is here. They stare at him because he's hot not because he's famous."

"He looks pretty famous here," trying to ignore the fact that Hermione called Harry hot.

Fish and the other guys walked up to Harry as the girls walked away sliding phone numbers in Harry's hand. They were all laughing and doing the strange handshake. They ordered a round of drinks and sat up at the bar.

"Yeah, what was the point of this? We're not getting anything out of this. All we know is that Harry is now a bad boy or whatever it is we're going to call it and he now likes to drink a lot. Why don't we just let him stay here? He said he was going to kill Voldemort."

"Ron, he's your best mate. You can't just let him go even if he wants you to. Because we know it isn't right."

Meanwhile up at the bar.

"So Harry, where do you keep running off to? Your stalker says you weren't at work this morning," Fish asked.

"Nowhere."

"You can't be nowhere, Harry. We all have our little secrets so where is it you go all the time? Sneaking off. You and Bonnie are secretly dating aren't you?"

"I am not dating Bonnie. We are just friends, still. What is it with you guys and us getting together?"

"We have nothing better to talk about. And you look like such a cute couple. The two smarty-pants should always get together. Get it through your thick skull. And you and Bonnie are the ones who are meant for each other. St. Jimmy and Hell's little angel who traveled from Ireland. Man is she hot," he said turning back to his beer. Harry slapped the back of his head.

"Don't talk about her that way." They all looked at him as if he had just proved their point. Harry looked away.

"Have another drink St. Jimmy. On me. Sounds funny doesn't it. I'm giving more beer to the Jesus of our Suburbia," Fish said raising his fingers to order another round of drinks. They all salted their hands, licked, drank, and sucked a lemon.

"How long is this going to last?" Hermione asked, trying her hardest to not pay attention. Harry was in the backroom again with two girls this time, snogging them both. Fish and the other guys had girls to, but only one each.

"I don't know," Ron said. "But I still don't get how he only got that one kiss from Cho and their relationship didn't even last longer than a month and now he's having threesomes in the back of a bar. I didn't even know bars had back rooms where people made out."

"Well you learn something new everyday, don't you? And it's a club with a bar."

Ron tried to stand up but Hermione pulled him back down.

One of the girls had to go home so she left while Harry and the other girl finished up, sliding off the couch and onto the floor as Harry's fingers made their way higher up the girl's skirt.

"I think Harry is not what we knew of him before."

"He's been hiding a lot of things from us. Like the fact that he draws. Why wouldn't he tell us that?"

"Because we take him as a famous Harry Potter who happens to be our best friend?"

"No! Maybe he's just not as open with us as we thought he was. Maybe he is better off here. He obviously likes it better with his freaky friends from St. Brutis's who probably smoke pot or something." Hermione crossed her arms looking angry.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\

The girl Harry was with told him she had to get going now. "Maybe I'll meet you here tomorrow night and we can have another go," she breathed as Harry still tried to kiss her, breathing hard against her skin while he kissed her neck.

"Do you really have to go? You've been here this late can't you stay longer?" Harry asked kissing her jaw line.

"No, because sooner or later, my mother will come to check on me and notice that I have snuck out," she moaned. Harry kissed her neck moved off of her and let her stand up with him. She left, with her fingers tickling his arm as she walked away.

"We should be leaving too Harry," Fish said. "Want a ride home?"

"Yeah, sure," Harry said hooking up his belt and pulling his shirt back on. They all headed out of the back room and Ron and Hermione followed quietly behind without being noticed. They followed Harry all the way back to Privet Drive and into the back like he was sneaking in through the back door, but when he looked like he was about to walk into the house. He looked around the corner to make sure nobody was watching and opened a box that was near his window outside the house. He pulled out a sketchpad. He looked at his sketchpad and jumped from the window and landing hard on two feet on the ground as if it was nothing. He flipped the first page of the sketchpad as he started to walk away from the house, past Ron and Hermione who followed him to the park.

Harry sat down on the cold morning grass near a bench but ignored it. He pulled a quill from the grass near the bench as if he had hid it there. He flipped to an empty page and started to sketch something out of no where but his head. Suddenly Harry pulled the paper off the pad and held it up so it was facing Ron and Hermione while he looked down at his paper. Ron looked as close as he could at the paper that said.

I Know You're Following Me!

Stop!

Ron and Hermione looked at each other and sighed. He knew they were there. 'How did he know though?' was both of their thoughts. Ron and Hermione turned and left listening to Harry crumple up the paper knowing they had left. Could he see them or could he just hear them or was it just natural instinct. Ron stopped suddenly pulling Hermione with him. He pulled off the cloak and started to walk over to Harry.

"Ron," Hermione said angrily. "You blew our cover." Ron kept walking and Hermione growled but followed him. Ron sat down next to Harry who didn't bother to look up but he smiled.

"Hi Ron," he said, amused.

"What are you doing Harry?" Ron asked. "How did you know me and Hermione were there. How long have you known we've been following you?"

"Please, we have been best friends since we were eleven. You don't think I know when you two are following me," Harry said with a slight amusement present in his tone. Ron had never heard him sound like that. There had always been some sort of sadness deep inside his tone that never went away. For some reason, Harry seemed blatantly happy about where he was.

Ron looked at his friend strangely noticing the slight difference in his appearance along with his attitude. His knees were pointed in, same as the toes of his black high tops. He wore dark blue jeans and a black T-shirt with the words Death Is the Next Best Step with a picture of a stick person holding a knife to their stomach. He also noticed that Harry wasn't wearing his glasses and there was line of black eyeliner going around his eyes and his hair was messier than ever. He also seemed to have gained some height over the summer.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked as Hermione sat down on the other side of Harry looking him over as well.

"I know that both of you have already heard from Tonks or Remus or someone that I like drawing," Harry said starting detail on whatever it was he was drawing.

"Yeah, Tonks. Why didn't you tell us you liked drawing?" Hermione asked, giving Harry an odd look.

"Because it was something I felt like keeping to myself. It never really came up and it didn't really matter," Harry said, though he sounded like he wanted to hit himself for saying art didn't matter.

There was an empty silence.

"Why are you leaving?" Ron asked sadly. Harry stopped and looked up.

"I'm not ― leaving. I just… I have to get all this stuff over and done with on my own. I think I've put enough people in danger already. I don't enjoy watching people cry in pain anymore so I have to do this alone. It's just right. I can't bear to watch you two suffer because I put you both through such things as I did last year. You both still have the scars from that night, and so do I. You never know, I might change my mind. But for right now, I just can't do it." And with that said Harry moved to stand while tearing the paper from his book and let it float gracefully to the soft grass as he walked away. Finely drew by Harry's quill was a great picture of exactly how they were a few seconds ago. There was a bench behind them and Harry was drawing while Ron and Hermione talked to him with happy faces. But standing behind the bench watching them was a cloaked man with the face of Voldemort. They knew what it meant, Voldemort was always watching him no matter what he was doing or how happy he was, Voldemort would never leave him alone, but they had to look behind them to check.

\-\-\-\-\-\

They headed back to Grimmuald Place to tell Remus and the order the news.

"Well at least he said he might come back," Ron said, as Dumbledore looked quite upset. Though he didn't understand why he was as upset as he was. "I think maybe he just needs some space. But contact with his friends. We actually got secrets out of him tonight. I think that's something."

"I think so as well," Remus said. "You two can talk to him but give him space when he needs it."

\-\-\-\-\

Part 2

\-\-\-\-\

Harry woke the next morning and headed to work at the tattoo parlor. His other job wasn't an actual job. He just wanted to help out that day. He happened to know how cars worked from hijacking so many with Fish and the guys.

He got dressed, putting on jeans and a T-shirt that said You Need Pain to Play the Game with a picture of a needle under it.

He then headed out of his room and out to the tattoo parlor in town. He walked in to see three people already looking through magazines for their tattoo. "Well if I had known that you people got up so early I would have too," Harry said, walking quickly to the counter as people looked up. He got straight to work getting forms from the desk while still talking to the clients. He was there to keep them calm. He was good at it, or so says his boss. "You all like getting in pain so early in the morning. Keep you up while you're at work?" Harry smiled.

"I have to get this done before I go to my mother's wedding," said a young girl of seventeen or maybe even sixteen. "I'm her maid of honor and she's making me wear a strapless dress. The guy she's marrying, I hate, so I'm going to make her feel stupid for putting me in the awful dress to top it off," she shared. She was a pretty girl and Harry wasn't expecting the hate for her mother.

"May I ask your age?" Harry asked pulling out a clipboard.

"I'm sixteen. I have a note from my father so I can get this tattoo."

"Who came in first?" Harry asked standing in front of the desk. Everyone in the room pointed to the girl though she looked surprised. Maybe they all wanted her to stop talking though she didn't seem to have more to her story. "Okay, please come with me," Harry said turning and walking to a room and the girl quickly followed with the magazine. Harry opened the door for her and she walked through into a sterile white room. A chair was in the middle of the room that could be shifted to lye back. Harry followed her in and closed the door. "Please take a seat Miss…"

"Tener," she said sitting down in the chair. Harry sat down in a metal chair in front of her and wrote her last name on the paper.

"Can I have the note?" Harry asked. She grabbed her purse and pulled out a piece of lined paper and handed it to him between her fingers. He took it gently making the girl swoon for a moment though she hardly noticed it. How many guys are that nice and make your heart shake by just taking a piece of paper. She watched him carefully. He wrote down her first name that was on the paper and checked a few things off. "Are you allergic to any kind of medication you read in the manual, do you have extra sensitive skin, thin blood?" Harry asked checking them off as she said no. "Okay," he said setting the clip board aside. He looked her in the eye. "Where and what do you want?" Harry asked.

"Um, this," she said, handing him the magazine and pointing out a skull and crossbones, the skull having two little flowers like clips on the top of it's head. Harry smiled and nodded looking back up at her.

"Where do you want it?"

"Um, on my back below my shoulder blade."

Harry looked a bit uncomfortable for a moment but regained his composure. "Do you think you can lower your shirt that far?"

The girl, he suspected, hadn't thought about this. She shook her head with a no. "Then you'll have to remove your shirt. You'll be leaning against the chair so it won't be that uncomfortable."

"How old are you?" she asked quizzically.

Harry paused. "Sixteen."

She gave one slight nod saying she would. Harry stood and grabbed a sheet and handed it to her. She pulled off her shirt as Harry looked away and sat on the chair leaning against the back that bent back just slightly and put her legs to the back of it. Harry turned again and moved his chair to a small table with the magazine.

"Hold a moment while I sketch it up please," he said grabbing a thin sheet of almost clear paper. In a matter of a minute he had sketched a well-copied picture of her tattoo. He pulled his chair over to her and started the procedure. He put the paper to her skin and pulled it off slowly leaving the outline right where she wanted it. "Are you okay with pain or will you be screaming?" Harry asked seriously.

"I'll be fine. My mother always said I was weird for enjoying getting shots at the doctor's office. A needle drawing a pretty picture on my back shouldn't be a problem," she said.

Harry smiled picking up the needle. "Me too. Though as I got older," he said setting the needle to her skin, moving her hair away with his other hand, "I started to get a bit paranoid. I thought the doctors were working for this murderer and were putting brainwashing poisons into my blood. Funny thing for a nine year old to believe huh?" Harry asked outlining, carefully, the design.

"I don't know."

"So, why do you hate this guy that your mother is marrying?" Harry asked, trying to ignore how soft the girl's skin was under his hand.

"Oh, it split up my parents. My mother was having an affair with this guy and now she's marrying him."

"Oh," Harry said, "sorry."

"That's okay. Sometimes I think he deserved it. My mother went through a lot of fights with him and there was a lot of hitting involved. But she could have walked away instead of cheating. What did having an affair do to help? Besides make me think they both hate me." Harry still thought it strange to be admitting all this to your tattoo artist but he guessed it was kind of like a bartending job. That's why his nickname made so much sense.

"Maybe she thought it would show your father that he shouldn't take advantage of what he has," Harry said. "Not to offend or anything," he added.

"No," she said in a calm voice. "You'd make a great bartender," she said calmly, as Harry pulled the needle away. He laughed slightly.

"Thanks, everyone says that. Any colors or do you like black and white?" he asked setting the needle down and waiting.

"Mmm, make the flowers pink," she said. Harry picked up another needle with a pink tip. "Can I ask you a question?" she asked.

Harry was quiet for a moment. "Sure, go ahead."

"Does Mr. Potter have any tattoos? I haven't seen any," she said.

Harry sighed with a smile. "Umm… Mr. Potter may have some but I wouldn't know," Harry said jokingly. She laughed lightly as to not move the needle.

"Can I see them?" she asked, softly, as if a bit embarrassed.

"Maybe when I'm finished," he said. He pulled the needle away and wiped at the ink. "Finished. Any other color? But I think it looks good. Your mother will be ecstatic," Harry said grabbing a patch to cover the now blood stained tattoo. He wiped it once more before taping the patch over it. He moved away so she could move to put her shirt back on. He turned around and gave her a pamphlet. "If something goes wrong just come back and ask for me. I should be here, I don't do much else."

She giggled slightly. She stuck out her hand for him to take. "It was very nice meeting you Mr. Potter. Thank you for your work. I will be sure to see it when I'm allowed to take the patch off," she smiled. Harry took her hand and moved to gently kiss her hand. She looked surprised but felt her heart float at the gentlemen like attitude he had that she had never seen. Ever. (At least in real life.) He didn't even mean it as a joke; he did it as if natural. She felt like she was Rose from titanic although it was normal back then. He let go of her hand and she now missed the warmth she hadn't noticed till now that he gave off.

"Thank you for appreciating my work," he said softly, in a hushed and handsome way that made her cheeks flush.

"Bartender," said a voice. A large man, big in muscle, came into the room looking amused. "Stop flirting with the customers." He turned to the girl. "Don't fall for it misses. He tries his 'I am very hot, take me home' act with all the girls." The girl looked to Harry who rolled his eyes and shook his head while turning away.

"Miss Tener," he said walking over to his table. He quickly scribbled something down. His writing must be as hard to read as a doctor's, she thought. He walked over to her and slipped it into her hand taking her fingers still holding the note. He bowed slightly while kissing her hand again. He looked up at her and stood. "If anything goes wrong, please contact us." He let go of her hand leaving her the note. "You can pay at the counter." Harry walked from the room and Miss Tener followed out to go pay. When she left the building she quickly opened the note. She was right about his handwriting.

_Don't take what he said to heart. I'm not like that. If you would, call my cell. Great choice of tattoo._

_342-555-3453_

She smiled at the paper. He didn't seem fake to her. She put the paper in her pocket and walked on to go meet her mother. And maybe try to find some information on the bartender.

\-\-\-\-\-\

That night Harry sat at the park drawing again. Ron and Hermione walked up to him and sat down in the same spots as yesterday. "Hey mate," Ron greeted.

"Hey," Harry said quietly. He was waiting for her to call. She had something nice about her.

"So, do anything fun today?" Hermione asked.

Harry stopped to think about. "Nope," he said turning back to his drawing. "My boss kind of ruined my day. I swear he thinks I'm gay because he keeps ruining my fate with girls and tries to set me up with guys. I think he's gone a bit mad and it would probably be best for him to retire before he stabs one of the clients."

"Why would he stab one of the clients?" Hermione asked.

"I work at a tattoo parlor. We work with needles all day. You naturally stab people anyway," Harry said.

"You're allowed to work at a tattoo parlor?" Ron asked.

"He couldn't deny me the job. I draw fast and I make it look good. I also 'attract customers with my boyish good looks,'" Harry quoted his boss.

"Your boss said that?" Ron asked a bit disturbed.

"Oh yeah. He's not afraid to speak his mind whether it creeps people out or not," Harry said blatantly.

"That can sometimes be a good thing," Hermione points out.

"Not for me. He's ruined four dates over my summer. Though I probably shouldn't be dating the customers."

Harry's cell phone rang and he set the sketchpad down on the bench behind him and pulled a razor cell phone out of his back pocket. He looked at the caller ID. "Wow," Harry said raising his eyebrows, "she called." The phone rang again.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" Hermione asked as it rang again.

"The longer you wait, the more you know. If she's hesitant she isn't going to be a very outgoing person is she?" Harry asked. The phone rang again and Harry picked it up this time. "Hello Miss Tener," he said pleasantly. "Decided to call on me after all?"

She smiled to herself behind the phone. "I was thinking about it some of the day. Why did you want me to call you?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you would like to join me for dinner tomorrow," Harry said gentlemanly.

"I guess I could do that. My night is fortunately free."

"Good, I shall pick you up tomorrow at seven. Is that all right?" Harry asked.

"It's fine."

"And do you have any fears of motorcycles?" he added as an afterthought.

"Uh, no. I'm sure I'll be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow now that I have this new information."

"I'm sure you are. I'll see you tomorrow night. Good night Miss Tener."

"Good night Mr. Potter," she said hanging up. Harry played on his phone to find his calendar and mark his new appointment.

"Who is Miss Tener?" Hermione asked.

"Tomorrows date," Harry said flipping his phone closed and stuffing it in his back pocket. He grabbed his book again. "Sorry that means I won't get to see you tomorrow night."

"That's okay," Ron said. "We'll just see you while you're at work," he smiled.

"I don't think you'll enjoy that. There's a lot of blood and needles and it just isn't a time to have conversation. Though some of my clients tell me I'm like a bartender."

"In what way?" Hermione asked.

"I talk and give people advice. Don't ask me why they think its good advice but they take it. Whatever makes them feel better."

"Have you thought about coming back to school yet?" Ron asked changing topic.

"Yep," Harry said and stopped. He just continued to write and didn't say anything after.

"And?" Ron asked.

"And what? I've thought about it. My mind hasn't changed much."

"But don't you want to go back to school so you can be with your friends."

"What do you mean? You two are right here," Harry pointed out.

"We'll be going back to school."

"Great, I'll be going to art school. Finally taking my scholarship."

"So you'll be skipping Hogwarts to go to an art school."

"Yeah, in Germany. It's not technically an art school though…" Harry said trailing off.

Ron and Hermione simultaneously looked at him shocked.

"You're going to Germany?" they asked together.

Harry finally looked up. "Yeah. It's fine. I have a full scholarship and they're offering to send a limo to pick me up at the airport and everything. I'm wanted as their young prodigy. Funny world isn't it. I'm either a young art prodigy or I'm to save the wizarding world. Wow that's a hard choice to make."

"Harry do you even know how to speak German?" Ron asked.

"Duh, why would they let me go to the school if I couldn't speak the language?"

"When did you learn to speak German?" Hermione asked.

"I took some classes when I was younger. One of the kids in my class, their best friend was Hitler. Them and me got into the language classes and are both now fluent in German, French, Yiddish, Roman, Greek and Latin and a few others. It kept us from being out in the sun too long."

Ron and Hermione stared at him as if meeting an entirely new person. Harry looked at his watch. "Oh shit," Harry swore pushing himself off the ground. "I've got to get going. I work at the place not far from here called 'Ink it Up.' So if you want to stop by go ahead." Harry quickly left leaving Ron and Hermione to wonder who they had been friends with all these years.

\-\-\-\-\

Harry climbed into his room through his window into his room. He quickly pulled his legs off the windowsill and looking into his room to see his uncle standing at the door. He didn't look very happy.

"Uncle Vernon, I didn't realize I was late," Harry said quickly.

"Shut up boy," Uncle Vernon hissed. "I'm getting really tired of you strolling around the streets acting the little child you used to be. You're more of an embarrassment now than before. Your aunt is now the gossip of the street because you have been seen with multiple girls each day. Those little freak friends of yours finally got the wicked sense of what you thought of as humor out of you and now it has come back and I won't take it anymore boy." He was walking close and Harry leaned against the window. Nobody would be watching this time of night and Harry knew that if he made a sound it would only be worse. So he stood still and waited for his uncle to hit him.

\-\-\-\-\-\

The next morning Harry went into the bathroom and looked at him-self in the mirror. He now had a growing purple bruise on his left eye that was seen easily on his pale skin. He rubbed at his face to wake himself up, ignoring his injured eye, willing it to disappear though he knew he could never make his magic work when he wanted it to. He would have to live with the black eye all day. Everyone will of course want to know what happened. He thought maybe he would stay home but he didn't want to offend the girl he was going on a date with. And his boss would kill him if he skipped work for reasons he couldn't talk about again.

He got dressed and put some cover up on his black eye and covered it the best he could. He then headed out and went to work.

When he walked in he kept his head low; hoping no one would notice the scar. He went through the same routine but talked less making his regulars or those coming back for finishing touches look at him strangely for his strange of attitude.

He went into the backroom with his first client of the day who got the point that Harry wasn't in the mood to be a bartender today. He made slight conversation but it was mostly quiet besides the vibrating needle and the radio Harry had turned on which was now playing the Youth Group which the guy said he liked.

The door opened and two people walked in. Harry kept his head down knowing exactly who it was.

"You guys aren't really supposed to come in here," Harry said, drawing a long line on the man's arm finishing off the outline of a tall flowing maiden. He set down the needle and wiped the man's arm of the blood.

"I really don't mind," the guy said looking at the two people in the room.

"Go ahead and talk to my friends then," Harry said boringly while starting on the detail on the maiden.

The man turned to them. "The legend of the bartender who works in a tattoo parlor has not shown through today," he says as if reciting a prophecy.

"Who's the bartender?" Hermione asked taking a chair.

"Your friend here. They say he gives good advice but today proves not to be a good day. Ow," he said looking at his arm where blood had dripped from an extra sharp prick of the needle.

"Suck it up," Harry said uncaringly.

"You two know if he has any tattoos? They say he doesn't tell or show," the man asked.

"You a legend here too Harry?" Ron asked.

"Apparently so!" Harry sighed.

"Sorry we annoy you," Ron said.

"You don't annoy me," Harry sighed. "I just didn't sleep well last night. I'm sorry."

"That's okay," Hermione said sitting down in a rolling chair. "I like your tattoo," she said to the man, who had many others on his arm around his new one.

"Thanks," he smiled. "Planning on getting one to?"

"Oh no," she breathed. "I couldn't. We're just here to see Harry."

"Why couldn't you get one? You all seem like friends so you must be old enough to get one."

"We are…" Hermione said, slowly eyeing Harry. "But I don't think my mother would enjoy it very much if I got a tattoo."

"Ahh, little Goody-Two-Shoes, we have here Mr. Bartender," he said quietly to Harry. The edges of Harry's mouth twitched. "Ever plan on getting one once you out of the house little Miss?" he asked Hermione.

"Oh, I don't know what I would get. And where."

"I had a girl come in a few days ago," Harry started, rolling away from his patient to get something off a table. He rolled back to the guy and whipped some watery liquid on his tattoo before rearranging his needles. "She had me tattoo a very lovely, quite discreet, lilac flower, right below her pant line. It was very nice, I must say. Very discreet and very personal. She was nice. And a very good kisser if I might add," Harry said, grabbing a colored needle to start back on the design. "That's what I would have in mind for you Hermione. Something discreet you know. It wouldn't have to be big and flashy."

Hermione looked like she was actually thinking about it.

"And you know she was a good kisser because…?" Ron asked.

"You get a girl to lower her skirt before you even go on your first date; it's pretty easy to get that first date and a little snogging afterward. Plus a little advice on why your mother is a bitch for not letting you get that lovely tattoo kind of helps a lot to," Harry said.

"How many dates do you get in this business?" Ron asked.

"Ah, my mate. Quite a fair few if you know how to talk to them. I've only had the job for a month. The girl I have a date with tonight, she got a butterfly under her shoulder blade. She took her shirt off but I was nice about it and now we have a date. She got the tattoo because she wanted to make her mother angry because she was getting married to a man she hated. Ever so sad."

"Wow, why did you not have this luck with our fair Cho Chang last year?" Ron asked interested.

"Because last year I wasn't as outgoing with girls and Cho Chang is too emotional and the widowed girlfriend of the guy I saw murdered," Harry said.

"Oh yeah."

Harry wiped the blood from the guy's arm. "Well Mr. Shery. It looks good, you're all finished." Harry grabbed a mirror so the guy could look more easily at his arm.

"Your rep stands true Mr. Bartender. I shall tell my friends," he smiled.

"Goodie, I get to come to work more often," Harry said sarcastically. The man smiled and stood up. "We shall discuss payment outside before I get my next victim shall we?" Harry stood up and avoiding their gaze asked Ron and Hermione to follow them outside the room. Harry went behind the counter and the man went in front of it. "So Mr. Shery, that's a large tattoo, detail, and color. You know the deal by now." Harry slid him his bill and Mr. Shery slid him a wad of cash over the counter. Harry took it and put it in the drawer. While setting a small bottle of anti-septic on the counter. "Have a nice day Mr. Shery," Harry said, counting the money.

"Have a nice day Mr. Bartender," he said with a smile before leaving. Harry looked up to the rest of his clients. He looked down at his list. "Um, Mrs. Nent?" Harry questioned. Usually married women never came to see him. Their husbands wouldn't let them. The woman stood up. She was probably in her mid-thirties but was trying to look younger. She wore quite some make-up and younger looking clothes letting Harry know that she was quite rich.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Okay," he muttered quietly to himself looking down at his sheet. "Um, Mrs. Nent, please follow me into the room." She smiled and walked up to him as Harry's boss walked out from the back. Harry raised his eyebrows to him but his Boss gave him a smile. Harry followed Mrs. Nent into the room and Ron and Hermione followed him. Harry closed the door behind him and then went to his chair. "So Mrs. Nent. Do you have a specific picture from something or outside that you wanted done?" Harry asked, motioning for her to sit down.

"Um yes actually. I wanted a rose. A small one," she said. You could tell she was French or maybe even Dutch.

"Lovely, do you have a picture or did you just want a plain, ordinary rose?" Harry asked.

"I wanted you to do it yourself. They say you're so good at it," she smiled. Harry could have sworn he caught seductiveness in her voice but it was gone instantly but stayed in her smile. Harry wheeled his chair over to a side table and pulled out a pen and some paper to quickly sketch up a design.

"By the way," Harry sighed. "These are my friends Ron and Hermione. They came to visit me and won't leave me alone so… Bare with me."

Mrs. Nent gave them both looks to kill and they both were a bit creeped by this woman. Harry turned back around to the woman who quickly put her smile back on. Harry showed her a picture.

"Good?" he asked.

"It's lovely. Just like I pictured."

"Good, now last thing. I need you to sign this," said handing her his clipboard and giving her a pen. She quickly signed and handed it back. "Thank you. Now last thing. Where do you want it?"

"Well, you look kind of young, but I heard you were good. I wanted it right here," she said. Harry looked up to see her pointing to the spot right between both of her breasts.

"Maybe I should get my boss to do this one―"

"No getting out of it Mr. Bartender. I'm paying for it and I will get what I want. And I don't want your friends in here either. I don't know them and I would rather them not intrude on my private discussions."

"Yes ma'am," Harry said, looking down. "Ron, Hermione, she's my last. If you wanna wait in the front or go eat I'll see you in maybe a half an hour." The two looked at each other warily but headed out of the room and closed the door. "Alright Mrs. Nent, you'll have to remove your shirt if that's alright?"

She nodded and unbuttoned her shirt to show that her bra was covering the part she wanted tattooed. Harry looked away. "And your bra please," he said. "But you can keep your shirt on." Mrs. Nent seemed to be enjoying herself. Harry looked away but could see her remove it out of the corner of his eye. She slipped her blouse back on but left the buttons undone. Harry turned back around. He put some stuff that looked like deodorant on the spot to be tattooed and grabbed a needle. "It may hurt a bit more than normal. Your bones are closer to your skin in this area." She just nodded. Harry picked up his paper pulled it back leaving the outline of the design where she wanted. He set the paper down and started to outline. The woman pretended nothing was happening.

"So I hear you're the Bartender. We're allowed to tell you anything and you won't tell anyone else?" she said. Harry nodded slowly while a bit distracted at trying not to let his eyes wander to her free breasts. "So you won't mind if I start talking of my problems?" she asked, interested.

"Nope. It's kind of like going to confession," Harry said. "St. Jimmy, you know."

She nodded and started to talk. "Well, you see, I've been thinking about getting a divorce. My husband and I haven't really been seeing eye to eye. He's been going away a lot more than usual. Business trips he says. I don't know if I should believe him. He did go on business trips before. I know he did because his office would call to make sure he was going. But now they never call. So I don't know if I should trust that he's cheating on me or not. I mean, I'm an attractive white woman. I'm not that old. Why would he cheat on his wife? We experiment in bed and I do what he asks." Harry was getting a bit uncomfortable here but let her continue. "Do you think I should get a divorce? But I don't know about that. I don't really believe in divorce. I thought our relationship was going well until now. I never thought he would cheat on me with a cheap slut horror."

"I think maybe you should get all the information before you get a divorce or accuse him of something," Harry said to her, while still drawing out her tattoo. "It wouldn't be the best thing to end up accusing him of something and then find out he wasn't doing anything at all. He might not forgive you. And same with divorce. Though you might want to think about that even after you find out if what you think is true or not. You might want to think about how much trust you have for you and your husband's relationship. Trust is the best thing in a relationship and if you can't trust him and he's not lying to you, you should maybe think about that." He pulled the needle away and wiped the blood away before grabbing a patch and putting it on her chest. He looked up at her as she looked a little shocked. "What?"

"You look young, but how would you be so informed about how to deal with people's problems?" Harry just shrugged. He saw her face before he felt her hand. It was resting on his thigh. He shifted his eyes down.

"Mrs. Nent," Harry said carefully. "I don't do well with people touching me…"

"I can guess why," she said, leaning forward slightly, her blouse uncovering more of her chest. "That's a pretty nasty bruise on your eye there." Her thin finger went up to his face and traced his bruised cheekbone. Harry closed his eye. Mrs. Nent's hand was rubbing up Harry's inner thigh. "But, the way I touch you doesn't hurt. I'm sure you've had many women haven't you? With that young face of yours." What she didn't know was that Harry hadn't even turned sixteen. She took the edge of Harry's shirt and pulled him closer to her and kissed him hard on the mouth.

\-\-\-\-\-\

A half an hour later Harry was pushing himself back into his chair as Mrs. Nent buttoned her shirt back up. The woman seemed to just want to get some action since she wasn't getting any from her husband at the moment. Harry's shirt was unbuttoned now as well and the woman's shirt had been flung completely open. When she had started to unbuckle his belt he stopped and she sighed, not wanting anything to end, but got the point. It ended the mood though and Harry stopped. "Your husband is a very lucky man. I would be surprised if you found out he were cheating. And if he is I'm sure you could do much better," Harry said, trying to straighten himself. She looked at him with a smile.

"Thank you. And I hope you don't think me a total slut for what just went on." Harry shook his head with a slight smile, as it seemed to happen more as he got this job. "Good. Well thank you for the tattoo and the lovely time." She grabbed her money from her purse. "I'll just pay you now. There's a small tip for your bartending or priest skills as you said it was like confession." Harry smiled.

"Thanks."

"If it doesn't work out, I'll be sure to give you a call," she smiled. She sloppily buttoned her shirt and left the room quickly with Harry behind her as he was still buttoning his shirt. "Thank you Mr. Bartender," she said before leaving. Ron and Hermione stood ignoring the fact that the woman wasn't wearing a bra anymore. They both looked to Harry as he finished the buttons on his shirt.

"Harry you have some lip-stick…" Hermione trailed off indicating to Harry's cheek, but stopped realizing what she was saying. Harry quickly rubbed it off. "Harry, what were you and―"

"You better both ignore what you're both thinking," Harry said quickly, cutting her off. Hermione and Ron both nodded sadly.

"Harry, where did you get the bruise on your eye?" Ron asked.

Harry looked up, forgetting that he had looked up at them. "I got in a fight last night after I left. It's no big deal."

Ron and Hermione ignored the subject for now. If they wanted to get Harry to come back to school they would have to keep on Harry's good side.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\

Meanwhile, back at Grimmuald Place. Something strange was sitting at the table in the kitchen with the rest of the order.

"Would everyone please stop staring at us? It's getting very uncomfortable," James said, as him, Lily, and Sirius sat under the scrutiny of the order.

"It's just so hard to believe that you all just…came back," Dumbledore said. "No one has ever done that before."

"Yes well, we don't know how we did it in the first place," Sirius said. "…Not to be rude or anything, but I'm starving," Sirius said rubbing his stomach. Mrs. Weasley got up immediately and started to cook. Sirius smiled.

"Well we should get down to business," Dumbledore said carefully. "You three should probably explain what you remember about how you got back. Sirius would have probably come back through the veil yes?"

"Surprisingly no," Sirius said. "Actually, all I remember is a really bright light, some strange words, and then I was falling out the night sky and onto my gravestone, which dissolved into the air as I sat there. It was really creepy."

"Same with me and Lily. There was a bright light, and then we were thrown from the sky and onto the ground only to watch our gravestones dissolve."

There was a quiet silence and James looked to his friend Remus. "Remmy you haven't said anything yet." Remus looked up at his two friends. There was suddenly a huge clash as Remus jumped across the table and pushed his friends to the floor holding their throats.

"You two are so selfish. You both die and then leave me here and then you both come back. What is wrong with you? Are you trying to get me to die to so we can all be in on the secret of reincarnation? Who's going to watch over Harry?" Remus suddenly stopped at James's faltering smile and saddening eyes. "James?" he asked, lightening his grip on James's neck.

"Harry?" he asked sadly. Lily joined them on the floor waiting for an answer. "He's okay?"

Remus nodded, sitting up with James. "He's fine."

"But Voldemort―"

"Couldn't kill him. The curse bounced and Voldemort lost his body. He got it back in Harry's fourth year."

"Forth year? That would make him older than fourteen…"

"He's sixteen James," Remus said. "Or he's going to be in a few days."

"Sixteen?" James whispered. He looked to his wife who had the same look he did. "We have a sixteen year old son."

"But he's alive. He's okay," Lily said, pulling James into a tight hug.

()()()()

AN: Why does it always seem to take me days to figure out how to make this editing system work? I will never master it. Sorry if its difficult to read.


	2. Bad Bruise and The Kumquat

AN: Next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

\-\-\-\-\

2

Bad Bruise and The Kumquat

Harry climbed through his window; happy his date had gone well. Ms. Trent was nice but they both agreed they would stay just friends. She was a good kisser though. As he put his feet on the floor and looked up, his happiness faded when he saw who was waiting for him.

"Uncle Vernon," Harry breathed, shocked that he was there. "But I'm back on time."

"But I feel like it anyway, don't I?" Vernon asked. His smile was cold and cruel. He started to advance on Harry while continuing to speak. "You were on a date with a nice young girl were you?" he asked, as if he were a great father, asking his son how his date went. It made it all that much more frightening. "Have a nice snog afterward? She going to go home and tell her mum you violated her?" Harry shook his head, knowing nothing happened, but knew it wouldn't change the sick pictures in his uncle's mind. Harry didn't know why he kept coming back to this mad house.

\-\-\-\-\

The next morning Harry rolled onto his side and quickly regretted it. He rolled back onto his back and moaned while opening his eyes. He looked down at his side, knowing that if he looked under his shirt he would see a huge bruise. He sat up very slowly on the hard wood floor about to see if he had any others. His uncle was always a lot meaner when he didn't have a reason. He didn't feel other bruises.

He pulled off his shirt, over his head. He looked to his side and saw a very nasty bruise on his side right beside the edge of the beautifully detailed cross that was tattooed there; that was now beginning to bruise as well.

His stomach was rumbling. He hadn't eaten much. Last night he could hardly eat. Alicia was very interesting and he could hardly pay attention to his food. But now he wouldn't dare go out. Not if it hurt to just sit up. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and called up work.

He lay back on the cold wood and listened quietly to the dull dial tone. "Ink it Up, what can I do to you?" asked his boss's voice over the phone.

"Hey Boss, its Harry."

"Bartender. You're supposed to be here already you little fag, where are you?' he asked rudely.

"I can't come in today," Harry said before coughing, not fakely. The pain was being sent to his side when he spoke or breathed. "I won't be able to sit in a chair and hold a needle without screwing up."

His boss growled. "You're just so lucky you're important to this shop Bartender. If you were a normal employee I would have fired your arse weeks ago."

"Thanks. I'll be in by tomorrow." They both hung up. Harry flipped his phone, and took a chance at breathing but quickly coughed.

Boss banged his phone against the receiver angrily making the customers stare. He looked up. "What are you all staring at?"

\-\-\-\

James, Lily, and Sirius followed Ron and Hermione into the parlor just as this was going on. "Next person," he called, leaving his phone hanging off the hook. Hermione walked quickly and the others followed before the actual customer got up.

"Excuse me, sir," she said carefully. "But I was wondering where… the bartender is."

"He called in sick. Said he wouldn't be able to hold up a needle. Stupid kid is always calling in sick but never gives an actual reason. Little fag needs to find out how to get out of fights."

James and Lily winced at the rude words used to describe their son. Fag unparticular. They couldn't do anything without attracting attention.

"Uh, thank you sir," Hermione said.

The man stopped them before they went through the door. "And if you're going to see him, tell him that a nice looking young man came in today. I gave the boy his phone number."

They continued to walk out the door.

\-\-\-\-\

Harry had the house to himself this morning. Petunia and Dudley went shopping and Vernon had to work extra hours at work. Harry had slid on an unbuttoned T-shirt to cover the white patch on his side, used for tattoos. Bonnie had come by earlier and her dream came true as she caught him with his shirt off. But Harry thought it better if he didn't wander around without a shirt.

He slid his headphones around his neck that was blasting the "Sex Pistols" before turning on the tèle and sighing into the couch with as little pain caused as possible. He pressed down on three buttons at once and sent the channel to a wizard Quidditch match. He sighed for a second wondering what Ron and Hermione were going to do when they figured out he wasn't going to work today.

The doorbell rang and he groaned but stopped himself as it hurt all of his organs. He thought maybe he had some internal injuries but wasn't about to tell anyone about them so he found himself screwed. He removed his headphones and slowly stood up to head over to the door. "Bonnie, I am not showing you my arse," he said, remembering she said she would be back to catch him with his pants off next. He opened the door to see his dead parents and Ron and Hermione. Ron was about to comment about what he said but Harry slammed the door in their faces.

There are two dead people outside my door, Harry thought. They must be Death Eaters. No one can come back to life. That's a sick joke. Voldemort was getting better at his mental torture. Harry shut off the TV and leaned against the door.

"Harry," said Hermione's voice through the door. "Okay, so maybe we should have owled you before we came by. Harry, could you please open the door. We are not death eaters."

Harry ignored her. If it really were death eaters they probably would have blown down the door already. But his parents wouldn't have been able to come back to life, that's impossible.

"Harry, please open the door so we can talk." Harry knew that voice to. That was Sirius. Sirius came back to. No, Harry said to himself. People don't come back. Harry locked the door and headed to the kitchen. He heard the lock click and knew they were inside. He ran outside and ignored the pain as he climbed the fence and fell to the ground on his feet on the other side. He ran the street and stopped when he was back at Privet Drive. He put his hand to the bruise that was stopping his breathing. He could see them looking for him and continued to run to Mongolia Crescent.

\-\-\-\

James sat down and sighed on the floor and Lily joined him. "Don't worry," Ron and Hermione said. "He's just been this way for a while. Mood swings," Ron said. "Must be the age thing. Though I thought it only happened with girls. Hormones must be running on over drive. And then with all the other stuff on his shoulders, he's just a little stressed out and loopy," Ron said sitting down.

"Sixteen," James said to him-self. "The year of girls and… defeating Dark Lords."

\-\-\-\

Harry stopped outside a plain house, almost identical to Harry's. He knocked on the door as if in danger. The butler opened the door and Harry ran in. The house was very rich: white tile floor, columns, and a large staircase. He ran into the library as the butler, knowing exactly who Harry was, smiled, shut the door, and more calmly than Harry, followed him to the library.

A young girl of Harry's age sat at a long wood table in front of a tall bookcase that reached the ceiling. It stood against the wall like the others that lined the room with books. Only stopping at the tall floor to ceiling windows, with flowing drapes at the sides. It was like the library from Beauty and the Beast. There were others just like it around the entire huge library, which was probably bigger than Hogwarts'. She didn't sit in a chair though. She sat in Indian Style on top of the table, reading "Gone With the Wind". She was very pretty, and looked very punk. She had blond hair in light ringlets around her face and a straightened fringe that hung next to her right eye. She had bright blue eyes and long thick eyelashes to go with her fair skin. She wore a horizontal striped black and white T-shirt with puffy shoulders, a knee length black skirt with white netting showing from beneath. Fish nets, with black and white striped knee socks: one vertical and one horizontal and red Dock Martin boots.

Harry quickly found a seat next to her on top of the table and she didn't bother to look up at him.

"I thought I told you not to show your face unless you agreed to show me your arse," she said in a light Irish accent.

"This is important," Harry said to her urgently.

She noted the urgent-ness in his voice and set down her book. "Alright," she said to the table. She looked up at him through her bangs. "I'm listening."

"You know my parents? How I told you about them being dead?" She nodded. "Well they're not anymore." Bonnie's eyes went wide. Harry filled her in on the story of what had happened.

"So St. Jimmy, or the Bartender as the adults are calling you now, needs advice now?" she smiled.

"This is not funny Bonnie. My parents are looking for me. This is like, land of the living dead," Harry said.

"It's okay Harry. At least you didn't do anything to them. Just scared them a little maybe."

"What do I do now? I just ran away from my parents and left them to deal with the Dursleys. Along with Ron and Hermione. And as much as I hate to admit it, a part of me is saying I hate them," Harry said sadly.

Bonnie looked sympathetic, but being her, the words didn't come out the way they looked they would. "Come my Kumquat," she said, holding out her arms, but Harry knew she didn't want a hug. He rolled his eyes at her and turned around to set his head in her lap. She put her fingers to his hairline and ran her fingers, slowly and softly, through his hair. She had a thing for his hair but would never admit to it.

Bonnie's mother was a weird type of therapist who believed in herbal remedies and massage to heal mental pain. Bonnie liked making fun of it. She thought it was funny.

"Now my Kumquat," she said calmly. "What reason do you have for hating your parents?"

"I don't know," Harry said, not as testily.

"Calm your tone Kumquat. Or you'll be stressed forever," she said, singing the last sentence. If her mother did this to her patients, Harry thought most of them probably never came back. "Now give me one reason you might be angry with your parents."

"Perhaps it's because they came at the worst timing. I'm going to be sixteen and once everyone finds out they're alive Voldemort will kill them again."

"Good analysis. So you don't really hate them. You're just scared that you might lose them again. So your mind is telling you to hate them so that if they die you won't be as sad."

"I guess so," Harry sighed. "But what am I supposed to do with them now? How do you talk to people you hardly know but you're supposed to know almost everything about. Same thing the other way."

"Just… ask. Say, hey, guy who looks like my clone… who are you? If he is your father he'll be just as confused. And it'll be hard for all three of you."

"You'll make a good therapist one day pet," Harry said, enjoying the feel of her dainty and gentle fingers in his hair. But he quickly lost the thought when he remembered he wasn't supposed to think of Bonnie that way.

"Don't say that Kumquat! I will be a superior journalist for the "Quibbler," or marry a rich, bald guy and kill him to inherit the money."

"That's lovely, Bonnie," Harry said sarcastically.

"Isn't it?" she said, looking at the ceiling dreamily. She quickly looked back down at him. "It's either that or wait till my parents die. And they could both live forever."

"I don't think your parents are immortal Bonnie."

"They're weird little devils though. You can never know." She dragged a thin and dainty finger over his cheek where the bruise on his eye was now only slightly visible. He seemed to heal quicker than normal.

The butler walked back into the room and introduced Bonnie's nanny. "Ms. Tempton is here to see you Miss," he said. Bonnie sighed sadly and Harry sat up holding his side. Bonnie quickly grabbed her book and hid her face behind it.

"Bonnie," said a tall woman, wearing a strict face. Her hair pulled back into a tight bun and wearing a black suit and pointed heals. She was an attractive woman but she didn't look too friendly. She walked toward them slowly, her heels tapping evilly across the floor. "Your father has sent a letter from work. Your mother has gotten a new job that will change your schooling situation." She held out a small envelope to Bonnie but she ignored it. "Bonnie," she repeated.

"Hmm?" she said.

Ms. Tempton turned to Harry and handed it to him. Harry took it and handed it to Bonnie who took it behind her book.

"Bonnie, dinner will be at eight and you can invite Harry if you like. Your father is working late and your mother is… going out." Bonnie nodded. Ms. Tempton walked from the room looking more annoyed then when she entered. Bonnie lowered her book to make sure she was gone. She set down her book and turned to Harry.

"Would you like to join me for dinner?" she asked, hopefully.

"Love to," he said, happy for a reason not to go back to Privet Drive.

"Come on," she smiled. "Let's go to my room. We can look at that tattoo your hiding up," she said moving his still open shirt to show the patch. She smiled devilishly, grabbing his hands and pulling him off the table.

\-\-\-\-\

The group sat at the table in Grimmuald Place trying to discuss how to get Harry back in school.

"Does anyone think it strange that we haven't been told why it is so important Potter goes back to school? I say we let him wander the streets if he likes and let James bother about it. No reason to get the order into this whole thing," said Snape.

James stood. "He is going to save your bloody arse at the end of this war so I say you have a reason to think of a way to get him back in school. Cause if he doesn't, he's not going to know how deal with his power and he's going to _die_ of magic overdose and then where will all of us be? In _hell_, with Voldemort as the devil taking all on as slaves so you better shut your bloody mouth Snape and try to figure out a way to make yourself useful," James said heatedly with a glare that would make Voldemort proud. He then shoved himself back into his seat and put his head down. Snape slowly sat down, for once looking scared.

"So what is it that Harry's going to do that will… save us?" Hermione asked gently.

"And why is he going to die of magical overdose?" Ron asked, slightly freaked.

Lily sighed, as James didn't seem in condition to answer. "Harry…" She paused, not knowing exactly what to say. "Harry… there was a prophecy made before he was born…" she paused, giving a look to Dumbledore who nodded for her to continue. She continued on, telling them everything about the prophecy and what Harry was soon to do and soon to be.

"So, Harry's destiny… is to… kill Voldemort?" Hermione checked.

"Right," Lily nodded.

"And if he doesn't gain control of his powers he's going to die of magic overdose?" Ron asked.

"Well we're not sure of that one actually. James was just… caught up in the moment," she said, giving a glance to James.

"I'm so sorry," Molly said, mainly apologizing for what was going to happen to their son.

"Well what did you expect?" Sirius asked. "You put those two together. Not that it matters but James is pureblood, and a bloody powerful one at that. And Lily is the smartest witch I've ever met. You put two and two together you can't expect anything less than a miracle child who's expected to save the world one day. But Harry isn't stupid and he'll figure out that he can't run away from this. It'll just happen anyway. And when he figures that out it's not like he's going to run to Voldemort for advice. So I don't know what you're all so worried about." They all stared at him shocked that Sirius had such lovely insight on everything. Usually he made a joke to calm everyone down but what he said actually made sense.

\-\-\-\-\

Harry fell back on Bonnie's bed, his shirt opening again. Bonnie lay down next to him and they both stared up at the ceiling. "So, are you going to read the letter?" Harry asked.

Bonnie sighed and reached over to grab her letter off a small round table beside her bed where her antique telephone was placed. She pulled it over to her and opened the letter to read to herself.

Harry watched her face go from happy, to sad, to happy, to sad so that when she was finished reading he had to ask. "So what does it say?"

"What was your school called again?" she asked, as if shocked. "The magic school you went to."

"Hogwarts," he said slowly.

"Well my mother is going to work there," she said slowly.

"…Doing what?"

"It. Doesn't say."

"Well the only post open would be defense but why would your mother want to do that?"

"I don't think she would."

"Is there anything else?" Harry asked. Bonnie looked at the letter.

"I'm going to Hogwarts," she said. Harry quickly turned to her with wide eyes. She looked over at him. "You don't think this is a sign do you?"

"That I'm supposed to go back to school?" She nodded. Harry lay back down and looked at the ceiling. "No."

"But Harry," she said, leaning over him slightly. "You have to go with me. You won't want to go to that school alone and I won't want to go to Hogwarts without you. I've always had you when I went to school until France and I didn't talk to anyone there.. I don't want to do that again. I'm not a social butterfly without you. I won't survive on my own. Besides, going back to school will be an easy way to get on a good track with your parents."

Harry sighed into the bed. He looked up at Bonnie. Her sad pleading eyes that were telling him so much of the truth. She really wasn't a social butterfly. Harry just had a knack for making people open up. That's why she was going to school with Harry. If she already had a good friend she wouldn't have to worry as much.

"Alright," Harry cracked, looking away. Bonnie smiled and hugged him tightly, making him groan in pain from the pressure on his side.

She pulled back quickly looking scared. "I'm sorry. I forgot." Harry shook his head.

"I'm fine."

Bonnie bit her lip, thoughtfully. "Harry," she said, as if it escaped from her mouth. "Would you like to stay over?" Harry quickly knew why she was asking. The way she kept looking at his bandaged side he knew she was putting something together and criticizing his lie about the fight.

Harry closed his eyes knowing she would put up a fight. "Yeah, sure."

\-\-\-\

Bonnie and Harry had a great dinner, flinging food at one another until the nanny came back in to see them with food on their faces. She glared, rolled her eyes, and walked angrily back out of the room. After dinner Bonnie went up to her family's training room, that wasn't really used anymore, since no one was ever home. She found some stuff for Harry's bruise and gave it to him. They hung out until late but both fell asleep hanging off of Bonnie's large king-sized bed.

\-\-\-\-\

"I guess I should inform you all that we will be adding a new member tomorrow. Her name is Ureic McNeal, and will also be this years Astronomy teacher. Our other professor has now retired. Mrs. McNeal has a daughter named Bonnie."

"Bonnie?" James asked. "Why do we know that name?"

"Harry told Bonnie that he wasn't going to show her his arse," Hermione said, holding back her giggles.

"Why would she want him to?" Remus asked slowly. They all shrugged but Ron and Hermione both had smiles on their faces.

"But he must know her," Ron said. "Maybe we can ask Bonnie if she knows where Harry is."

"That would be fair. I'll make sure to tell her mother to bring Bonnie with her. And Harry to if they know where he is."

\-\-\-\-\

AN: Hope you enjoyed.


	3. Bonnie at Grimmuald

3

Bonnie at Grimmuald

The next morning Harry moved his hand, finding himself holding something soft and warm, which was weird since they both fell asleep so haphazardly they should wake up uncomfortable. Harry nuzzled his face into the softness, his lips gently brushing against it and took in the smell of roses. He knew that smell. That smell belonged to Bonnie. But that made sense if he was in her bed.

Harry opened his eyes, his eyelashes brushing the back of Bonnie's neck. Bonnie's neck? Harry asked to himself. He quickly knew what he was holding onto that was so soft. His hand was holding onto Bonnie's bare waist, touching her bare skin. Realization struck him and he quickly let go, causing himself to fall off the bed. That woke Bonnie up. She leaned over the edge of the bed and looked down at him.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," Harry moaned, dropping his head on the floor.

She smiled. "I'm gonna get dressed. You go downstairs and eat some breakfast. Then we'll head over to Privet Drive and collect your things. You'll be going back to… wherever your parents are."

Harry sighed and nodded anyway. He sat up and got to his feet before heading downstairs.

After a few minutes of sitting downstairs not eating much of his breakfast like usual, Bonnie made her way downstairs; now fixed in a tight red dress that finally flared out at the bottom lined in pink netting. She wore black tights and her red Dock Martin boots. She pulled up a seat next to Harry, not the least bit surprised that her parents were no where to be seen.

Her house elves set her up with a dainty breakfast before leaving her for the kitchens. "So Harry, what would you like to do today?" she asked.

"Actually, I'm going to have to say sorry. I have to go to work― and before it even comes to mind, no I can't skip. I already called in sick yesterday and he will have me killed, cloned and brainwashed if I do it again. Sorry. But I'll see you after work. You know I don't stay for very long. Four at the most. Unless I have a huge job today."

Bonnie sighed. "That's okay. I'll contact Fish's sister. We'll go shopping in Diagon Alley for new robes. It'll be fun. I wonder if London's Diagon Alley is any different than the one in France."

"Maybe. Look I have to leave now. I should head back to Privet Drive anyway and get changed and maybe brush my teeth."

Bonnie waved her hand in front of her nose and plugged it as if she could actually smell it. "Yeah, cause it really is horrific."

"Thanks," Harry smirked. Bonnie thought Harry had a very nice smirk, but not as nice as his smile. He stood up just as Bonnie's nanny, Miss Tempton, walked into the room.

"Bonnie, your mother just made a floo call," she said, tapping into the room with her tall designer boots and tight dark dress suit.

"Really, that's a surprise?" Bonnie said, completely serious.

Her nanny didn't look amused; though she never did. "You're going with her to the order meeting. And if the boy-who-lived is with you, you must drag him along."

"Who called me the boy who lived?" Harry asked, knowing it was no one in the order.

"Most likely my mother. I highly doubt she has enough brain power to remember your actual name," she said to Harry then turned back to her nanny. "Did she say why I was to come and bring Harry?"

"No just that you were. You'll be taking the floo so whatever you want to do to prevent getting dusty…"

"I'll just take my giant, hovering, body guard with me than, shall I?" she yelled as the woman left the room. Bonnie looked back to Harry. "Don't worry," she said walking toward him. "I'll tell everyone you just weren't here. I won't let any info slip if you don't want me to." Harry nodded his thanks. "But while you're at the Dursleys," she said tentatively, "just, be careful alright," she said, pulling him into a gentle hug. Harry hugged back, giving her the comfort of knowing he would take her advice the best he could. He nodded into her shoulder and she let go after she felt she could no longer keep her emotions under control if she kept so close to him. He smelled good. She smiled and Harry left.

Getting to the Dursleys he went through the front door knowing Vernon was already at his new job. He headed quickly up the stairs and pulled off his shirt. He slowly removed the bandage and saw that even slowly, the bruise was healing more quickly than any normal one would. He was glad for that even if he didn't understand his self-healing magic. He threw the bandage in the trash when he went to shower and brushed his teeth. He had now completely given up on doing anything with his hair. It never tangled either so there was never anything to do with it. He slipped on a tight black T-shirt and some jeans as well that only punks would dare to wear. He then jumped out his widow and got to work as quickly as he could.

He ran into work just in time before his boss got the cloning machine out. "There you are. Where the bloody hell have you been? How is it you can't come in one day and the next day you look bloody fine to me…" he continued to complain of Harry's absence as Harry went into the back room to be met with his first client.

\-\-\-\-\

Bonnie threw on her really long velvet red cloak that touched the floor and went far over her head. She pulled it around her and let the green flames erupt around her. Her mother followed, not bothering with the cloak. Bonnie came out the other side of the fireplace to be caught with gasps. She pulled down her hood but shielded her eyes from the sun that was coming through her windows. "Calm down people, I'm not a death eater," she said, pulling her hood back up to get out of the sunlight. "Merlin, what are you people? Sun worshipers." She went over to the window and shut the curtains.

"You know, only death eaters would say they aren't a death eater," Ron said, looking at her skeptically.

She turned to him and removed her hood, giving him a nasty look. "Do I look like a death eater?" she asked.

"A bit," he said, turning around to sit back down in his seat.

Bonnie glared at the back of his head. "Thanks," she said sarcastically.

"Darling, please be nice to the other kids," her mother said walking toward her. Bonnie rolled her eyes. "And don't try to sell them anything," she added quietly.

"Mother," Bonnie said, pushing her away. "Just go to your little meeting." Her mother left the room and Bonnie fell into a cushy chair like she wanted to die. "Oh, god, please save my mother from the only slight insanity you have given her," Bonnie said softly. She looked up to see the three others looking at her. "What are you looking at?" she asked rudely.

"You don't have to be so rude," Hermione said.

"Oh yes, I'm sorry for being rude to Harry's saintly friends," she said, putting her head in her hands.

"You're Harry's new friend?" Ron asked.

"New? Sure, whatever makes you feel better," she said softly, still reminiscing on her mother's words of selling the other three drugs. God, they find one cigarette in your room and all of a sudden you're selling and smoking pot, she thought to herself.

"Do you not like your mother?" Ginny asked. Bonnie snorted. "The way you talked to her I kind of got the image you didn't really like her all that much."

"Yeah well does anyone really like their parents?" she asked lifting her head. "My mother is a whack job who won't eat more than condensed air mush. I'm sure she'll make a lovely teacher. Everyone will love her spiritual ways of teaching whatever the bloody hell it is that she's teaching."

The three looked at each other before turning back to Bonnie. "So how come Harry didn't come?" Ron asked.

"He had to work. He said his boss would kill, clone and brainwash him if he didn't come in today. But he doesn't work for long so… he'll probably be catching Fish for a drink at the bar later on. Though it might not be noon by the time he's finished."

"You might not want to say that he's going to bars while his parents are around," James said, sending everyone a heads up. Sirius, Lily, and Remus had come with him. Bonnie quickly snapped her mouth shut, making her teeth click. "So what is Harry doing at a bar?" he asked, taking a step in.

"I didn't say he was at one. I said he might go to one. And don't get him wrong, he doesn't drink… much."

"So I have an alcoholic son now?" James asked, now more worried.

"Hardly. Harry is the most non-alcoholic person I know. He'll go throw everything up later." By the looks on everyone's faces she knew that wasn't the right thing to say. "I'm not making you feel any better am I?"

"Bonnie," Sirius said. "If you could just tell us where we could find Harry right now…"

Bonnie was silent. "He doesn't want to be found. But he will be going to Hogwarts, so you won't have to worry about that. I talked him into acting the puppy and following me there."

"Bonnie, please," James said pleadingly. Bonnie saw the loving in his eyes that she wished she had enough time with her father to see in his own eyes. She sighed.

"I really can't betray his trust."

"I thought you said he was at work. We know where that is," Ron said.

Bonnie looked at him. "Yeah, but you'll never get to see him if you just show up. Especially if all of you show up. He's not really into big crowds these days. Plus he missed work yesterday and his boss will kill him if he has visitors. Your best chance at kidnapping him will be to catch him outside of work where there will be open space and a place for him to back away when you try to touch him. He doesn't like hugs either."

"He didn't look uncomfortable when he was snogging girls at the bar," Ron said. Lily looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Yes well that wasn't hugging, he had the control didn't he?" she said sourly. "Stupid sluts should go to America and die of Aids," she mumbled, not looking at anyone and they didn't understand her as she had said it in French.

"So," Sirius started. "What time does he get off work?"

"Depends what he's doing in the back room," she smiled.


	4. Rose Petals

4

Rose Petals

Harry was sitting in his chair but the surgery was backwards. The guy he had finished tattooing a few minutes ago was now piercing Harry's lip: Just a small stud on the side of his mouth. There was a small amount of blood by the piercing and he gently licked it, feeling the soft metal next to the skin. He smiled to the guy sitting in front of him. "Thanks."

"Girls love it." He handed Harry and a mirror and Harry looked at his now pierced lip.

"I do to. I always love being paid this way. But unfortunately my boss doesn't. Don't worry. I'll pay. You won't have to pay me and I won't pay you." The guy smiled. He then left and being Harry's last client he leaned back into his chair and used his tongue to play, bored, with his new lip piercing. He wondered if Bonnie would like it.

He dropped his feet from off the other chair when the door opened, quickly fearing it to be his Boss. But it was only Fish.

"Hey bud," he said sitting down. "Did you pierce your lip?"

"Last guy who came in did it. Does it not look good?"

"Looks great. Any idea if you'll be joining us at the bar tonight. The girls really miss you."

"Aww, I can't. My uncle's getting a bit stricter with the curfew thing. I'm an embarrassment to him by staying out so late. Obviously if anyone is going to see me up so late they are as well."

"I said the same thing once. Got myself an intervention within the week."

Harry laughed. "Well, sorry but I can't go tonight. I'll have to quiz Bonnie about what she learned today. She's going to Hogwarts this year. I have to go with her now. I really don't want to talk to my parents."

"You'll have to do it sooner or later. I found that it's best to just get it over with and secretly despise everything you're doing in your mind. It's a little harder to just avoid them completely."

"I don't want to avoid them or hate them. Because I don't. I just don't want to fall for them. Cause then there will be something to lose."

Fish nodded. "I say, talk to them, but don't get attached. Attach a recording in your head that tells you over and over not to care about the hugs or the 'I love you's', no matter how much you want it."

"Yeah I guess. Maybe I should go right now."

"Alright," Fish said, standing up with Harry. "I'll go collect the men for tonight. We'll be in the same place if you decide to change your mind." They both headed out and Harry told his boss he would see him tomorrow. They headed out and began walking down the street, heading back to Mongolia Crescent, hoping Bonnie was home so they could use her for food they were starving for. But then Fish leaned over next to him to whisper something. "You were right. He does look like your clone." Harry twitched his head as if shocked to see his dad and Sirius sitting down on his front porch. "Have fun getting into your house with them sitting there. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe," he smiled.

"Thanks," Harry said sarcastically. Fish left and Harry turned back to the two people he really didn't want to see at the moment. He sighed, before walking very bored like over to them. He stopped in front of them and they only noticed him when he spoke as they had been staring at the ground solemnly.

"So why isn't my mum here?" Harry asked. They were both surprised to see that he had actually shown up.

"Harry," they both breathed standing up quickly. "Your mum, we decided it would be easier for you, or more Bonnie did, if we didn't come in a group. And it may be easier if there was someone you actually knew." He left out the fact that Lily might kill her sister if she saw her.

"Bonnie? Spilled did she?" Harry smirked. "Did she also tell you that I didn't want to be found? Maybe I should just tattoo it on my forehead. 'Stay away from me.' Obviously I don't make it clear enough when I spree from the house just to get free from all of you."

"That's not very nice Harry," Sirius pointed out. "Since when did you start acting like Draco Malfoy?"

Harry thought the remark was a bit harsh, but had one back none the less. "I'm not acting like, Draco, Sirius. I'm just _pointing out_ the facts. Draco makes fun of them. You shouldn't compare me to people; it just makes the argument harder on you."

Sirius gave James a slight glance, giving him the 'know that Harry was never like this before now.'

"Is Petunia really letting you sit on her porch?" Harry asked, knowing if she hadn't, he would really be getting a beating tonight. Thanks James, he thought.

"Oh well, no. We kind of just sat here. I don't think she knows."

"Oh she knows," Harry assured them. "She's been peaking out her window for however long it is you've been sitting here. She wouldn't let the fact that two people are sitting on her porch go. In fact, I'm sure that if she wasn't sure you had wands on you, she would probably chase you away."

"Can't get her big fat hus―"

"H-h-he's at work," Harry cut him off. In case Petunia heard and told Vernon. Sirius and James both noticed the scare in Harry's voice while mentioning his uncle. But Harry looked away.

"Well, Harry, we are here for a reason. Bonnie says that you're going to school is that right?" James asked, seriously wishing to just pull Harry into a hug right now and drag him away. But he had been warned that Harry had a big thing about being touched. Even Hermione and Ron couldn't deny that he did; though they had never taken much thought to it before.

"Only for her. I was completely set on art school. But she was going with me and we both decided to go to Hogwarts. Savvy?"

"Sure," Sirius said. "So you are going to school. That's good."

There was a long silence that followed. Harry knew he should go inside and wait patiently in his room for Vernon to come home so he could leave again and come back later tonight for his beating. He wondered if it would hurt more now that his lip was pierced if Vernon punched him in the mouth.

Harry faintly noticed his father speaking to him. "So Harry? Are you going to come?"

"What? Where?" Harry asked, having missed the whole conversation.

"To Grimmuald Place," James repeated. "I know you don't―"

"No…" Harry cut him off, discussing faintly with his mind that if he left he wouldn't have to accept the beating. That sounded like as good an excuse as any to follow James. "Actually, I'll come." Sirius and James looked at him in surprise, as this had been terribly hard earlier, yet it now it only took a few sentences to get him to go with them. James wanted to grab him with joy but the next sentence cut him off before he could take a step forward. "As long as you stay away long enough for me to accept what's going on. I'm not sure I'm ready to believe that, even if you look exactly like me, that you're my father. I just need some time." James nodded solemnly, holding up his hands saying he wouldn't touch him. He was a bit disappointed but knew it was better getting him to come than nothing at all. "I just have to get my stuff."

"We'll just come to. We're going back to Grimmuald via portkey," Sirius said. Harry was a little panicky for a second. He didn't remember what he left on the floor. But he figured if they saw anything he would finally never have to come back here again. The thought made him move forward toward the house. He pushed open the door and walked out of the room, completely ignoring his aunt. James and Sirius looked around the living room while passing. There was no indication that Harry actually lived here. They then quickly followed Harry, ignoring Petunia as she quickly ran into the kitchen. They followed Harry to a dead locked door.

He then turned to them. Sirius got the hint and unlocked the door with his wand. Harry then pushed open the door.

Whatever way they were expecting from where the boy-who-lived lived, this wasn't what they pictured. It was a very small room, disheveled, as if he had only been in and out of the room but never actually lived in it. The bed was messed as if he had done nothing but jump off and on it. The floor was dusty and was laden with other things. Butterbeer bottles, candy wrappers, an apple core. Obviously Harry didn't care much for being clean. His trunk was sitting open in front of his bed, waiting for someone to use it. It was half-empty, save for a few pairs of black trousers and T-shirts. Harry kicked them off the edge and the rest of the way into the trunk without looking as he continued over to his desk to see Hedwig.

"Hey girl," he cooed to her, as if she were his child. "We're going to get out of here. Excited?" Hedwig hooted happily and nipped his finger affectionately. Harry closed her cage and set it with his trunk while going over to his closet and throwing in the rest of his clothes, all neatly folding themselves. Three pairs of Converse hightops came from under his bed and Harry placed them gently on the side of the trunk as if not to ruin his clothes or the shoes. He went over to his bed and pulled about five books from under his sheets or in the edge of his bed. He pulled a sketchbook out from behind his pillow and gently placed it in the trunk with his books. He went over to his desk and found everything else, from books to ink to quills.

Sirius and James watched interestedly at Harry's speed in moving around his room. He was definitely a seeker.

James's attention was directed at Harry's wall. In big letters of red was the word 'himself'. "Hey Harry," James said, looking at the wall. "Where did you get this paint?"

"It's not paint," Harry said as he searched the room to see if he was missing anything. "They're rose petals.


	5. A Place For Girls to Put Their Teeth

5

A Place for Girls to Put Their Teeth

Harry closed his trunk and looked to his father who was still staring at, what Harry now thought of as, a boring piece of artwork. He knew at one point he thought it was great but now he didn't believe much about his work. It's why he never showed any of it besides in tattoos. But apparently his father thought it was good.

Sirius was finally able to snap James from his pondering over the wall. They all headed to the portkey Sirius had made up and grabbed hold. Harry felt the familiar tug behind his navel. In a few seconds he was leaning over his trunk and kneeling on the floor. He felt someone help him up and slightly flinched but they pulled him to his feet. Once on his feet he saw that it had been his father. He smiled slightly but quickly pulled away.

Sirius sent his things upstairs for him and Harry heard the quiet scream of surprise from Hermione upstairs. "I'm gonna go upstairs and see my friends," Harry said, about to move for the stairs.

"I don't think so," Sirius said, taking his shoulders. Harry flinched again, wondering what happened to the agreement of not touching. "I think they'll figure it out and head downstairs. Right now, your mother is still ripping her hair out and now that you're here we can make you apologize to Remus for almost biting him."

"They were kidnapping me," Harry said in defense, as Sirius pushed him from the stairs and toward the kitchen. Though Harry was less then willing and his feet were scraping the floor. "And you're making me ruin my shoes."

"That's your own fault. You could pick up your feet," Sirius said. It wasn't that Harry didn't want to see any of them. He just didn't want any of them to touch him and he knew that Mrs. Weasley had a tendency to give bone-crushing hugs. And most of his bones were still already crushed. Harry did the only thing he could think of. He pulled his shoulders from Sirius's grip. He ducked under Sirius's arm and moved behind them, surprising both James and Sirius at his quickness.

Once a safe distance away he turned to speak to them. "I'm sorry. But I know that if I go in there mum or Mrs. Weasley will want a hug and I don't want one right now," Harry admitted before running up the stairs.

James looked to Sirius and sighed. "We have got to stop pushing him. I don't want him to flinch at me anymore."

"I don't get why he's acting this way," Sirius said putting a comforting arm around James. They then headed the rest of the way to the kitchen to inform the order.

\-\-\-\-\

Harry passed by his friends as they walked out of the room and headed straight for the bathroom. His friends strangely followed. Harry walked into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. He looked at his arm where his father had touched him.

Instantly Harry knew him.

He smelled just like him now. It was everywhere.

Harry knew that he had to get it off quickly before he identified that scent and feeling with his father and his loving, parental gestures. He didn't want to know. He would become attached by just this one thing. He quickly wet his arm and grabbed the soap before scrubbing as hard as he could against his skin. He pressed so hard it began to hurt and his skin was burning. He heard a knock on the door and Bonnie's voice came melting through the door like a soothing poison he didn't want. He wanted to feel the pain. He needed the association. The distraction.

"Harry, are you okay?" she asked.

Harry looked at his arm. It was red from the rubbing. He went to the sink and washed off his arm and opened the door. They all looked really worried when they didn't even know what he had done.

"What? A person can't really have to use the loo?" Harry asked.

Bonnie smiled. "Fine. Come with us though."

Harry followed them back to his and Ron's bedroom and sat down on his bed beside Ron. Before anyone else could start the conversation, Ron did. "Oh Merlin. Harry, did you pierce your lip?" he asked, shocked.

"Congratulations on being the first to notice Ron," Harry smiled. He licked the small stud that pierced the side of his lip. Bonnie and the girls got up quickly to look at it. "God, do you need to be so close."

Bonnie sounded like she was an expert. "Good placement, nice shape. Where did you get it?" she asked.

"I gave a tattoo, he pierced my lip," Harry said quickly.

"That is so unfair," Bonnie said. "I like it. Very hot," she said approvingly.

"Me too," Ginny agreed standing up with Bonnie.

Hermione kept sitting. "I don't get it. Why would you want a metal stud in your lip?"

"It gives girls a place to put their teeth," Harry smiled, knowing Mionie wouldn't approve. Surprised though she just smiled and stood having to look away.

"So what happened?" Bonnie asked. "How did they finally get you to come back?" she asked.

"No, I just gave in with the agreement that they wouldn't touch me, which they didn't go through with by the way."

"Why can't they touch you?" Ron asked.

Harry just shrugged. "I don't know. I'm all of a sudden claustrophobic and don't want people to touch me. At least not people I don't know, which kind of makes me feel sorry for my parents."

"Yeah, they just came back to life and now you're ditching them?" Bonnie asked.

"I am not ditching them," Harry said. "I just don't want them to get too close. We talked about this already, why are you bringing it up again?"

"Because you didn't tell them," she pointed out.

Harry sighed and started to tell his friends what him and Bonnie had talked about.

"Harry you can't seriously believe that your parents will just die again," Ron said. "I mean, sure we're at war, but Voldemort probably won't make a huge hit at them again if they're just going to keep coming back to life."

"Ron does have a point," Hermione said. "I don't think you should do that to your parents. You should have seen the looks on their faces. They didn't even know you were alive for a while."

Harry felt a little guilty but he didn't want to be rejected either. Sure they wanted to know that their son was alive but once they got to know him they wouldn't want to anymore.

"I have no idea what to say to them," Harry said placing his face in his hands.

"Say 'hi dad' and let the rest take its course," Bonnie suggested. "It's usually not very hard to talk to your parents unless they're like my parents and me where as you get older you run out of things to talk about. But Harry, the fact that they've been gone for fifteen years gives you fifteen years worth of stories to tell each other. You can't possibly run out of things to say or have nothing to talk about. I'm sure both your parents would be happy talking to you about the weather."

"Yes but how do I start conversation? I've never had this problem before. I didn't expect them to come back. What do I say now that I've run away from them twice?"

"Well, I'm sorry to say but you put yourself in that predicament. But I'm sure they'll probably start conversation if they're desperate to talk to you, which they are. So you don't have to worry about that. But be polite while answering their questions."

"What if I can't answer their questions," Harry said.

"Like what?"

"Like why my Boss thinks I'm gay or what the whole bar scene was about since Bonnie let that slip."

"Well, I would like to know why your boss thinks you're gay too but if you can't answer just say you can't answer," Ron said. "They'll go onto a different subject."

Harry sighed. "Everything in life just has to keep getting harder. I don't think I remember a moment when it was just simple. Even for a split second. Even while you're drunk your mind only swirls with your problems if that's the only thing that's there."

"What the optimist you are Harry," Ginny said.

"I know, it's amazing isn't it?" Harry smiled sarcastically. "I can't see anything but the bright side."

For the next few hours they all sat around talking. Apparently Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had listened in on conversation and caught Dumbledore telling the order about the Prophecy. Harry decided it was better that they knew than not. He liked being able to talk with them about it. They were a little upset that it had to be Harry who killed Voldemort even after he had been through so much.

\-\-\-\-\

The door to their room opened as Ginny was telling everyone of the twins latest invention. She seemed to always have inside information, even before Harry, who was an investor.

"Hello little children of the order," Sirius said as James followed him. "I think it's a good name. We should think of something shorter though," he said to James, who rolled his eyes when Sirius turned back to the kids. "Dinner will be in a few minutes so if you would like to head down you may."

"Actually, I have a question," Harry said, making attention go to him. "Am I allowed to leave the house, now that I've agreed to stay here?"

"That doesn't make a lot of sense," Sirius said.

"I'll be coming back. But I have a date tonight and I have to go to work in the morning."

"You have a date tonight?" Sirius asked interested. "With who?"

"A girl, will you answer my question?"

"Yes you can leave the house, I guess. As long as you tell us exactly where you're going."

"Why, so you can tail me?" Harry asked.

"Yes, we do have to make sure you don't run away again," Sirius said, jokingly. Harry glared at him. "Fine, you can go. But we're setting a curfew for eleven."

"Fine," Harry smiled. "I should leave now. I'll see you all later."

"Not even gonna get ready for your big date?" Sirius asked, following him out of the room with James.

Harry stopped at the door and turned to them with a smile. "It's not a big date. It's a short date and a good snogging." Harry opened the door and closed it behind him.

\-\-\-\

James and Sirius informed the order and three of them went to tail him. Two of them, being James and Sirius since they wanted to see who Harry's date was and the other Moody because he thought they couldn't handle it if Harry was actually attacked. Hearing the prophecy made everyone a bit more protective of Harry. Harry was hardly heading to a girl's house. Apparently he was going to Fish's house. He went inside and didn't come out till a half-hour later. He was newly clothed in black trousers and green T-shirt, black high tops, and a long black jacket. He went to the back to the garage and drove a motorcycle down the driveway and away from the house.

"He's really good at the bad boy look," Sirius said, almost enviously.

\-\-\-\

Harry drove down to a tall house outside Mongolia crescent. He walked up to the door and knocked before a girl quickly jumped him. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and kissed him on the lips. Harry pulled her away gently, smiling at her excited face. "You look nice," Harry said, looking her up and down. She was wearing very tight jeans and tight tank top that showed all her curves.

"Thanks, my dad almost wouldn't let me leave the house. My mother, being the one who is trying to get me to remove the tattoo before her stupid wedding, told him off."

"So they're still living together?" he asked, taking her hand as they went down the stairs of her porch.

"Oh yes. The parentals have decided to stay in the same house until the actual wedding. Stupid, I know, but that's my parents," she sighed. "They can live happily in a house together only after they've decided to get a divorce."

They came up to Harry's bike. The girl smiled. "You said you would be teaching me how to drive it," she said.

Harry sighed. "You're lucky it's still light out." She smiled. "Alright, get on," he said. She gently put her leg over the bike and Harry followed climbing on behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and put up the kickstand. He reached in front of her to turn the key. "Okay," he said setting his chin on her shoulder. Alicia (the girl) felt his hot breath on her neck making her close her eyes for a second at the sensation of his lips so near her neck. "Are you still paying attention?" Harry asked her, turning his head so that his breath connected directly with her neck.

"Mhmm," she mumbled, turning her attention back to the bike. Harry smiled.

"Okay," he said. He lifted his chin and moved his hands from her around her waist and set them on her hands. He moved them onto the handlebars and set them there for her to grip. He scooted closer to her on the bike and put his hands beside hers on the handle. "Now pull this one back some to rev the motor." She did so. A little too much making them move forward then stop.

"Oops."

"No that's okay. Just remember to pick up your feet when you move. Now start slow and move forward." She slowly pulled back on the handle with him and they moved slowly.

"I feel like we're going to fall over," she laughed.

Harry pulled back more and they were going faster. That was the order's sign to start following.

\-\-\-\-\

Harry pulled up to a small café and Alicia stopped with a sudden jolt. "Good," Harry laughed. "But I'm going to drive next." She nodded following him off the bike. Harry reached around her and pulled out the keys putting them in his coat pocket while taking her hand. They walked up to a café and Harry got two coffees before they headed away from the café with their coffee and to a near park. They drank on the way and threw them in a near trash bin before heading into the park. Alicia went straight for the swings while Harry walked slowly after her. She sat down and Harry walked up behind her.

Alicia thought he was about to push her. His hands went gently to her shoulders but he didn't move her. His fingers gripped over her shoulder and traced along her collarbone. He moved his hand down her bare back, tracing his fingers over the skull he had tattooed on her shoulder there. He leaned down slightly as she moaned at the soothing motions his thumb made over her tattoo. She couldn't help but close her eyes. He moved her hair on one side of her face behind her ear. His mouth was very near her neck but all she could feel was his warm breath. The warmth moved up under her ear until she felt the lightness of his lips. They were velvet soft against her skin as they were dragged down to the edge of her earlobe. They moved back to the side and he gently bit it. He pulled away slowly for a second moving her hair to her other shoulder. His finger traced a line down the back of her neck before kissing it. He moved to the side of her neck. She could feel the cold metal of his piercing against her skin near his warm lips. His lips made small moves over her jaw causing her throat to give small moans in delight. She was leaned back slightly on his shoulder once he got to her mouth. His kiss was smooth and light and full of passion, even if she knew he wasn't in love with her. She felt an orgasm in her mouth and moaned her enjoyment to him through their mouths. His tongue began to play with her's and he licked her bottom lip as if teasing her and searched every crevice. Alicia lost all control of her body parts and fell into Harry's arms and off the swing. Harry put his arm under her knees and pulled her off the swing. He pulled away for a moment to catch his breath. Alicia took this time to play with his bottom lip. Her tongue gently played with the piercing on his lip, getting Harry to moan as she tugged at it gently with her teeth.


	6. Giving In

6

Giving In

After an hour of snogging in the grass, and then talking, Harry looked at his watch. They were sitting quietly on the swings slowly going back and forth. He found it almost eleven and thought he should probably keep his curfew. He moved his hand behind Alicia's neck and pulled her into a soft kiss. She moaned softly persuading Harry to go farther. He licked her bottom lip before searching her mouth with his tongue. He pulled away gently causing her to groan in complaint. "Sorry," he said softly. "But I have a curfew now. Guardians are getting weird," he stated.

"I understand. I don't think my father would enjoy me staying out till midnight either," she said to his lips as they got closer. They kissed again, lightly, before pulling away.

"Come on," Harry sighed, pulling away fully and standing up. He took her hands to help her stand up.

\-\-\-\-\

After dropping her off Harry dropped his bike off at Fish's for safekeeping and he went back to Grimmuald Place. He quickly walked up the stairs to his and Ron's room but was stopped quickly by hands on his shoulders. He turned around to see Sirius and James standing with smiles.

"What?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowing.

"How was the date?" Sirius asked. "Have fun?"

"It was fine…. Can I go to bed now?"

"No," James said.

"You both followed me didn't you?" Harry asked suspiciously. He narrowed his eyes. "That's disgusting."

"What? It's not like we watched you. We were on guard for death eaters," Sirius said.

"You guys― the order― you don't have to follow me. I'm almost sixteen, I can take care of myself."

"But we don't want to take the chance."

"Dumbledore has let me take the chance many times. Sorcerer's stone, giant Basalisk in the Chamber of Secrets, swarm of Dementors, Tri-Wizard Tournament even. I think I can handle a bunch of stupid death eaters. I did it last year while I was getting Sirius killed remember?" Harry asked him.

"Well we're not Dumbledore―"

"But he is the one promoting that I need protection."

"Well yes…. You always have to take everything we say into tiny pieces and sort through them don't you?" Sirius asked.

"Its how I get out of conversations. Did you forget what you were asking?" Harry smirked.

Sirius and James sighed. "Go to bed. But we're talking about that 'giant Basalisk' in the Chamber of Secrets in the morning." Harry smiled and headed the rest of the way up the stairs.

\-\-\-\

Harry got into his room and was met up with a still unsleeping Ron and Hermione. Why? Because they were making out on Harry's bed. Harry stopped shocked in his spot, his mouth agape slightly. He finally caught his senses and coughed to make his presence known. Ron and Hermione quickly moved apart. They both looked shocked and couldn't think of anything to say. "I'm sorry. I promise I didn't see anything…" he said shaking his hands. He then looked around the room with only his eyes. "Cause I think I've gone blind. I'm gonna. Go. Now," he said slowly. He slowly walked from the room. He walked back into the hallway and closed the door. Ron and Hermione must still be in shock at being caught. Harry sunk down on the floor against the wall.

"Harry?" Sirius asked as him and James came up the stairs. "I thought you were going to bed. Why are you sitting in the hallway?"

"I think I've gone blind," Harry said closing his eyes and leaning against the wall. He felt his father kneel down next to him.

"Why have you gone blind?" James asked as Sirius joined him.

"Ron… and Hermione… were on my bed," Harry said very slowly.

"Fear of other people's germs to?" Sirius asked.

"Let me put it simply," Harry, said annoyed, opening his eyes. "Their mouths were moving but they weren't talking." Comprehension seemed to dawn on them both.

"And you walked in on them?" James asked.

"It was horrific. I don't ever want to see my friends in that position and my worst nightmare has just come true. I knew this was going to happen why, I am even surprised?" Harry asked himself, letting his shoulders fall. "They've been hitting on each other since second year. But now that realization has hit, I get why people were saying they would be sorry for me once they finally took the next step. The stupid Golden Trio is over." Harry dropped his head on his knee letting out an "oww" in the process.

"Oh Harry it's not over," James said, having heard the nickname for the three friends a few times.

"Oh yes it is," Harry said raising his head. "It's not going to be the Golden Trio anymore. It'll be the dead Golden Trio. It'll be the couple that finally got together and the boy-who-lived or the guy who used to be part of the golden trio or Gryffindor's Golden Boy as I've heard many times…. Oh great, they're going to go back to your highness like the first years did in my second year when they were afraid I would petrify them."

"Yeah, neither of us knows why they would be afraid you'd petrify them but I'm sure everything will be fine. Are you sure they were doing what you think they were doing? Maybe Hermione had something in her eye."

"Yeah, that's why their mouths were connected."

"Maybe Hermione fainted and Ron was giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation," Sirius thought.

"I stood there for a few seconds Sirius. There were tongues." Harry shivered. "Eww."

"Oh."

Finally the door opened and Ron and Hermione came out.

"Harry, it's not what you thought it was," Ron said quickly.

"And that's why it took you so long to come out of the room," Harry said, looking down, not able to look at them for fear of the pictures coming back.

"Well, me and Ron…" Hermione paused. "We're really sorry Harry. We didn't want you to find out that way."

"How long has this been going on?" Harry asked.

"Just now. But we still didn't want you to find out like that," Ron said.

"And when were you deciding to tell me?"

"We hadn't gotten to that yet," Ron said.

"Did you even think about how I would feel about this? Hermione is like a sister to me and you're like my brother and then I walk in on the two of you snogging. It's just… weird."

"Ooh yeah. That's really weird," James said. "Sirius and I are just going to leave now to let you talk about this. Come on Sirius," James said pulling him away, hoping it would give him brownie points if he gave Harry some space when he needed it. Harry looked thankful and James took that as a good sign.

Ron and Hermione sat down with him.

"Harry, we're really sorry," Hermione said. "We just… I don't know. I don't like Ron as just a friend anymore."

"Neither of you have liked each other as just friends since second year. I saw it. Me and everyone else in the order and school have been waiting for you both to notice it."

"What?" Ron asked.

"Hey," Harry said, not as unhappily. "This means I just won fifty galleons."

"Wait, what?"

"Your brothers, Fred and George, had everyone bet on the both of you for when you would finally get together. I won fifty galleons, Charlie won twenty, and Sirius won nothing as he predicted you would get together when you were seventeen. Haha."

"How long have you been betting on us?" Ron asked.

"Since second year. Oh god I won more then fifty galleons. You think Fred and George would be angry if I woke them up?"

"Not if they were getting gossip," Sirius said coming quickly down the hallway to go to Fred and George's room. Ron stood quickly.

"Sirius you can't tell them."

"Why? They'll find out sooner or later. I'm sure everyone would like to be woken up to hear this." He knocked hard on the door with an evil smile on his face.

"Who in Merlin's name will be waking us up at this hour?" Fred asked, grumpily. George joined him.

"Ah, you both remind me so much of James and I. Guess what will make your day?"

"What?"

"Ron and Hermione were snogging on my bed," Harry said. Fred and George quickly dressed and ran to each room in the house knocking hard.

"Do we really have to make a big deal out of this?" Hermione asked. "Have any of you bet on Harry for anything?"

"Nothing we're going to admit to," Fred said.

"What does that mean?" Harry asked, incredulously.

Sirius kneeled down next to him as James came back into the hallway. "We've all bet that you're going to end up marrying a muggle but don't tell anyone I said that."

"How come we didn't get in on the bet?" Ron asked.

"Because you would tell Harry."

"But you told Harry," Ron pointed out.

Sirius just smiled and Harry quickly knew he had lied. "You liar. What were you betting on?" Harry asked standing up.

"What is going on here?" Mrs. Weasley asked as everyone began to congregate in the hallway.

"Alright, before we say it, someone has to agree to tell Snape," George said.

"I will," Sirius said, hoping to see the look on Snape's face.

"Okay. Everyone, Miss Hermione Granger and Mr. Ronald Weasley have finally decided to go out. Harry caught them kissing."

"On my bed might I add," Harry said. "We're burning those sheets. And I'm going to need an Obliviator."

"I will send for one right away," Fred said. "Then we won't have to pay you your money."

"Fine, I'll wait and bang my head against a wall later," Harry said. Mrs. Weasley was the first to make any movement. She ran across the circle to her son and Hermione and hugged them both tightly.

"Oh, it's so nice to see you finally together," she cried.

"Mum," Ron whined.

"Alright. We're going to start getting everyone's money together. We just wanted to let you all know the good news. Now all we have to do is wait for Harry to do something so we can get more money."

Harry felt someone standing behind him.

"Would anyone like to tell me what this bet is?" Harry asked.

"I told you already," Sirius insisted. "You're going to be the first to marry a muggle."

"But you were lying. I know what you look like when you lie."

"So sad that you won't believe me. But it is you that must suffer."

"Everyone can go back to bed now," Fred said. "We'll be gathering in the morning to give you all your winnings."

Harry turned around to be met with his mother. She smiled. "You've been avoiding me."

"I didn't mean to," Harry lied. Though now he really wished that he hadn't.

"It's okay. Your father explained your non liking of being touched." Harry looked over at his friends. They were heading back to bed. In separate rooms. Harry surprised his mother by wrapping his arms around her in a hug. She quickly hugged him back tightly. Putting a hand to his neck. "Was he lying?" she laughed slightly. Harry sensed the tears she was trying to hold back.

"No," Harry admitted. "I just changed my mind." Lily held tighter.

"I'm so happy you're alright, Harry. When they told us you were living with my sister I expected the worst. I love you so much." She was crying openly now. Harry felt really guilty for running away from her now. He clung tighter, unconsciously taking in the scent of her; surprisingly, Lilies. She kissed the top of his head and then pulled away gently and placed a kiss on his forehead. "Now if you're going to give me a hug, your father would like one to." She turned Harry around to face his father. He reluctantly let his father pull him into a hug. He let his arms hang as his father held him in a tight grip. He was even more afraid of his father. Not because he believed he would do anything to hurt him but because he wouldn't accept him. So Harry just let his father hold him for a couple seconds.

James put his hand on Harry's neck. "I promise I will never leave you again. I swear. I never want you to not trust me. I love you so much, you don't even know." And Harry could tell in his voice that he meant it. But instead of hugging back he broke and fell to the floor. James went down with him watching Harry concerned. "Harry, are you alright?"

"You don't mean it," Harry said.

"Of course I mean it Harry. You're my son and I will always love you no matter what."

"Please just tell me you don't mean it," Harry said desperately, sounding as if he were about to cry.

"Why don't you want me to mean it?"

"Because then I won't have to put you in danger. Voldemort has been going after everyone I love just to get to me and I don't want you and mum to be put in more danger. I don't want to lose you because of him, again."

"Harry, Voldemort is not going to kill us. I promise. I told you I wouldn't leave you again. And neither will your mother."

"You can't promise that. You work for the order and you're bound to do something dangerous."

"Harry, I promise. I will stay out of trouble the best I can if you stop worrying about it."

"I can't," Harry said looking at the floor.

"Yes you can baby. You are going to stop thinking that Voldemort rules you. So you have a destiny to fulfill. At least you know what it is. And that doesn't mean it has to rule you. I know you'll be able to fulfill it. You don't have to worry about everyone else. They'll be fine. We can all take care of ourselves," James assured. He took Harry around the waist and pulled him back into a hug. Harry rested his head into his father's chest. "And me and your mother, and Sirius and Remus and the order, we're all going to take care of you. So you are going to stop worrying about such things. You're going to be just fine and so will we. That I promise. That I will make sure of." Harry still didn't believe his father could promise such things, but he had already fallen into a love for his father's voice and scent and everything else about him that he had learned so far. And he didn't want to have to pull away at the moment. So he nodded slightly into his father's shoulder but gripped the edge of his robes so he knew he wanted to stay there.

"Think you could get my boss to let me quit?" he asked as a joke.

James laughed. "If you want me to I could try. But wouldn't all you have to do is tell him how old you actually are?"

"He already knows. But he doesn't care because I'm good at my job."

"Well if you want I'll get him to let you quit."

Harry just nodded while closing his eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep against James.

After a while of sitting in the middle of the hallway stroking Harry's hair, James decided it might be time to send him to bed. "Harry," he said softly in Harry's ear. "You should get to bed now." Obviously not noticing that Harry was fast asleep. "Okay maybe you already are," he said with realization. He kissed the top of his head and moved Harry into a more comfortable position in his arms. "Come on baby," he said gently picking him up off the floor. He turned to Lily. "Think he'll hate us if we make him sleep in the bed Ron and Hermione just made out on?"

"Probably," Lily smiled. "I'll change them. Come on. Try not to wake Ron," she said quietly opening the door to Harry's room. Ron was already asleep, snoring on the opposite side of the room. Lily made a flick of the wand and the sheets were sent off the bed and replaced with new ones that looked pointedly cleaner and softer thanks to Lily's motherly disposition. She pulled back the sheets and James gently set Harry down as Harry had started to loosen his grip on James's robes. Lily gently covered him up and leaned down to kiss his forehead. Pulling back she took a moment to watch him in his sleep. "Oh my God. Did he pierce his lip?"

"Hmm, interesting. Didn't see that before," James said. "Oh well. He liked it enough to keep it."

"Yes, well. Come on. Let's get to bed before morning comes," she said, turning to him with a smile and taking his hands.

James leaned in to kiss her while walking backwards to the door pulling her with him. "Mmm, we really need to get our own house," James smiled. Lily giggled and moved out of the room with him as James closed the door.


	7. Missh

AN: Here's another chapter. Hope you enjoy.

To the Reviewer Who Reviewed Anonymously as Uhh: I'm sorry for the long wait. I'm working on Part II. When I've got more to post, I'll have to figure out how to get it from one computer to the other. Hopefully by then I'll post it on both sites.

To everyone who isn't Guy Fawkes, I'm glad you all like the story and continue to read it. And as long as someone wants to read it I will continue to post it.

New Upsetter

7

'Missh'

The next morning Harry woke up early to head off to work. He decided to go downstairs to make coffee before leaving but was caught up with Sirius, Remus and his father. The three were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Harry, having heard a few stories about them, thought this very strange.

"I thought you three hated getting up early," Harry said walking into the kitchen. "Don't you usually sleep in till twelve?"

They looked up from the table simultaneously as if they had been falling asleep in their coffee cups. "Why are you up so early?" Remus asked.

"I have to go to work," Harry said, grabbing a cup from the cupboard. He poured some coffee and sat down with them; since it was obvious they weren't talking about anything.

"I thought you were quitting," James said.

"No, my boss would kill, clone, and brainwash me. He's told me many times and actually expects me to come back next summer."

"He won't let you quit?" Sirius asked. "Why?"

"Duh, it's hard to find a good tattoo artist. There's only the three of us working there. My boss and two other girls, very hot, but I'm not allowed to date the employees. And I always seem to get the girls for tattoos and they get the guys. I don't know who made up that schedule but no one is complaining. Anyway, it makes it very hard to find a good tattoo artist around here… or there. Unless Fish decides to get a job. He's not bad; he would only have to trace. But it'll be a miracle when Fish gets a job that pays."

"Why? Is he really rich?" Sirius asked.

"No," Harry said taking a sip of his coffee. "He plans to become a neighborhood burglar. You wonder why his parents sent him to a school for incurably criminal boys?"

"Oh," James said. "So he has no plan to do anything good with his life?"

"He finds that actual jobs are just a disappointment to the actual meaning of life. He thinks, since he's a muggleborn you know, that if he does what his parents want, he'll end up being a good student in school and go to college and end up being an accountant for rich people and then you just keep going back to work every day doing the same thing every day, complaining that you really hate your job and you wish you had gone through with your dream of being a burglar and that you had never listened to your parents. So he decided to skip the middle man and just steal people's things," Harry said in one breath. "It's a good way to travel…. So in a way, he is doing something. Just not anything for the good of humanity."

"What do you plan on doing once you get out of Hogwarts?" Sirius asked interestedly. The three of them leaned forward.

"Why do you want to know?"

"No reason," they said in unison.

"Honest?" They nodded. "I plan on serving tea to Queen Elizabeth in the large kingdom of Heaven."

"I don't get it," Remus said.

Harry laughed and shook his head slightly. "I don't know. I didn't plan on living long enough to figure it out."

"That's optimistic," James said. Harry smirked.

"I don't know. In forth year, Ron and me thought we would be set on being Aurors you know. But I don't know, after the war I think I'd get pretty tired of… fighting people." Harry went off in a daze for a second as if thinking about it but he had a very disturbed look in his eye. Sirius snapped his fingers to get him back. Harry turned back to them and smiled apologizing. James noticed Harry gave a lot of fake smiles. Most of them just to reassure the people around him that he was fine, even if he wasn't.

"So besides an auror is there anything else you would think to do?" Sirius asked, persistent to get an answer out of him.

"Last year Mionie said I would make a good teacher. I don't think that would work out though. I don't like kids much."

The three were surprised at the comment.

"You wouldn't want to have any kids of your own either?" Sirius asked, a little surprised.

"I don't think it would be best. I would probably end up being a disappointing father or something… But I really have to go to work now so. It was nice chatting with you, I'll see you at lunch." Harry stood up and poured his coffee out in the sink before leaving the kitchen.

\-\-\-\-\

Harry had a lovely day at work, no new dates since it was a short day. He had spent most of the seven hours reading from a strange book he had taken from Fish's house. His sister said she had found a lot of use for it while she was in school. She never did admit how many years ago that was. But the book was pretty interesting. There was stuff about everything in here. It was basically a reference of what you need to get through school. Harry turned the page ending the chapter on "How to Get Your Teachers to sound less like Mice" which was surprisingly intent with detail, and moved onto the next chapter. "How to get Through an Hour of History of Magic." Harry was intent on reading this. He decided that since he wouldn't make it back for lunch on time he would go out to lunch on his own. He folded the page and signed out for the day before leaving for a small outside restaurant. He sat down at a table ordering lunch and tea. He pulled his feet up onto his seat ignoring the flirting looks he was getting from passing girls and a guy who was sitting behind him. He thanked the man as he set his food and tea on the table and opened his book again to the marked page.

_Every student who has gone to Hogwarts, especially within the last hundred years where your teacher was, or still is, a boring ghost, has not been able to pay attention to the teacher. The one who jabbers on and on about Goblin Wars and every-once-in-a-while adds in stuff you need to know for tests. But out of all the time you spend in that class paying attention how many of us actually catch the stuff we need to know? _

"Not me," Harry said to himself, taking a sip of his tea.

_Well now I have made the ideal thing for you. I have dubbed thee a 'Missh'. (Meesh) It will, uncaringly and without complaint, sit on your desk and take your notes for you. Every single word that comes from the teacher's mouth will be written neatly on your paper by the end of your class. _

"Hi," said the guy that was behind him. Harry looked up from his book to be met with the guy that was so obviously gay by the way he was looking at him. "What are you reading?"

"A book," Harry pointed out looking back at his page but was interrupted before he could continue to read.

"That's funny," the boy said. He was noticeably Harry's age only maybe had already passed his sixteenth birthday. "What's it about? You seem pretty interested in it. You haven't touched your lunch because it's getting cold."

"Not to be rude, or maybe I am, but what do you want?" Harry asked, setting his book on his knees.

"I just wanted to slip you my number. Call any time for a good job," he smiled. Harry shook his head as the boy stood and walked away leaving his number on the table. Harry ignored it going back to his book.

_You can also use your Missh for other things. Your Missh loves to play and watch and maybe help you win a chess match against your friend that never loses. _

"It's like you're reading my mind," Harry mumbled quietly.

_It is very smart, or it should be if you make it right. It will help you write your homework when you've written a badly placed sentence. Or write it while you tell it what to put down in case you have, like many students do, put everything off till the last minute, and your hand has cramped up from all the writing. _

_How to make your Missh:_

_Your new friend or Missh will look however you like so that it will fit your personality and, for homework reasons, your handwriting. When you finish, your Missh should look something like a mini human. It will have a round head, arms, legs, a body, and feet. But it will be small enough to sit on your desk without being noticed by your teacher from far away. Other features will be put together by what you put into your potion. Have fun. _

_Ingredients:_

Harry turned to the back of the book looking on the inside cover. There, in the messy writing of a person, was a note. A sign that someone who went to Hogwarts wrote this book to make it easier on you for once. And Harry had already seen in between certain chapters there were intermissions where they told you how to succeed in your perfect prank. He wondered if his father and the marauders ever used this book but had a feeling they didn't. The letter read this.

_**This book is for those of us at Hogwarts who need a bit of help. Not because we can't fulfill what is asked of us but because we have a little too much on our plate in our own social life. One that won't leave us alone. Those of us who receive this book may hand it on to anyone they like but if there is one person who needs it most I beg you to pass it on to them. Have fun with this book and make sure to give the Headmaster Hell. Play the Pranks and use the helping hands. Make sure not to show anything you learn from this book to adults and don't let on that you have the book. Thanks for reading and be sure to pass on the Legend of: **_

_**Your Guide to 'Hogwarts That Doesn't Make You Feel Like You're Dying Everyday!'**_

This is some interesting book, Harry thought to himself. He finished up his lunch quickly before heading back to Grimmuald to tell Ron and Hermione about the Missh.

He heard and Order meeting going on in the kitchen and headed to the parlor where everyone else would be. He walked in to discover, Bonnie who had moved her chair in front of the door. Harry slid through and shut the door.

"Sorry Harry," she apologized grudgingly as she sat upside down on her chair, letting her hair flow down on the floor. Ginny sat beside her on the arm of the chair.

"Why is your chair against the door?" Harry asked, grabbing another chair and sitting down.

"Your two dating friends think I'm weird. So I decided I would stay away from them. Best they not contract any strange disease I may have," she said, glaring at Ron and Hermione. Harry looked at them.

"We did not say we thought she was weird," Hermione defended. "I commented on her clothes and the way she talked about her parents and she took it all the wrong way."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing," Hermione said.

"Nothing?" Bonnie asked angrily. She pulled her feet down in front of her and turned around to face them sitting up. "You practically implied that I was a nut job who got lucky with rich parents. I quote from Hermione; 'Your clothes are _interesting_.' And I'm not deaf, I heard you thinking, "Goth. She's going to kill everyone." And what is wrong with how I talk about my parents? Your parents are dentists and they take you on trips to Paris every summer. I stay at home with a devil nanny who wears nothing but pointy boots and black suits. My father never comes home and my mother has something wrong with her head that no one seems to notice but me. So don't you dare start whispering behind my back. I can be as depressed as I want to be, any time I want!" She turned around and moved her feet above the chair moving the center of her skirt between her legs so it would stay. She took a clip from her bag that sat beside her. She pulled her hair together and moved it in front of her face and clipped it there so you couldn't see her.

Harry turned back to his friends.

They both shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. Harry moved from his chair and sat by her head and moved her hair away from her eyes to look at her. "I know something that will make you feel better," he said softly and caringly. She was always like this for reasons she never really let on about. He would find out about it later.

"What is that?" she asked, as if expecting him to say something that couldn't be true.

"I have a new potion for you to learn." Bonnie's feet were down before Harry could move away and she joined him on the floor.

"What is it?" she asked excitedly. Harry motioned for Ron, Hermione and Ginny to join him before he started to tell him about the book and what it was to do for them.

"I don't know. How do we know we can trust this book? It could be some weird, evil book," Hermione said.

"Yeah Harry. Last time I trusted a book someone wrote in, it didn't end very well," Ginny pointed out.

"Oh but this is different. I didn't just find it. Someone gave it to me. Fish's sister to be exact. It says you have to pass the book on to someone else in Hogwarts once you leave. Well she was a Hufflepuff a couple years ago. She got it from her friend who graduated a year above her. It shocks me how much we don't pay attention to the people that go to our school. But then she handed it on to me. She was just doing what the book says."

"I guess," Hermione agreed. Ginny nodded though she didn't seem too excited about it. Ron looked interested. Bonnie looked like she really wanted to read it.

"Bonnie, can you get me a cauldron and some supplies?" Harry asked. Bonnie looked at him funny but took out her wand waving it to accio the things Harry asked for. "Thank you." As Harry was setting up his things in front of him Ron was making conversation.

"May I ask how come you can use magic outside of school?"

"I was in France till this summer and the Ministry here hasn't noticed that I'm doing magic outside of school yet because I haven't been put back in the line up of working wands here in Britain yet."

"That's cool," Ron said, envious.

"Okay," Harry said, gaining attention. "It says…" Harry's voice trailed off as he began to prepare his ingredients as they were said in the book. "Wow, for a potion that creates a living thing this a pretty simple potion," Harry said doing the cutting pretty quickly.

"That's because you're 'potioning' like Merlin there Harry. Wanna slow it down a little?" Bonnie asked, a little surprised. She was a master at potions, or so said her professors and Harry was doing really well. "You always sucked at potion making."

"Maybe it was just Snape breathing down my neck," Harry said, adding an ingredient and stirring.

"What are we making here?" Ginny asked, tilting her head at the potion.

"We are making me a Missh. It's so cool. It writes your notes for you and helps you write your homework. Kind of like a quick quotes quill that has a life of its own. I think it says it can talk to you to if you want it to."

"Oh that's just great Harry," Hermione whined. "You're making yourself a slave. Now I definitely don't trust this book. I think we should tell someone from the order."

"Hermione," Harry said exasperatedly. "We can't tell anyone. It's not a slave; it's a note-taking bug. Besides, this is good potion practice for school."

Hermione sighed, shaking her head. Harry continued with the potion till it turned the right color purple that it called for. "Now, it says to add something for its personality." Harry tilted his head looking thoughtful for a moment. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a guitar pick. He then dropped it into the cauldron causing it to simmer. "That's so he will be interesting. What else does it need?"

"We just throw anything in that could stand for something?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, that's what it says," Harry said, pointing to the page.

Hermione stood and grabbed a random book from the library and threw it in letting it dissolve. "No one uses the books in here anyway."

"Well I think it needs a heart so that it won't turn cold and evil," Ginny said. Bonnie formed a red piece of parchment from her wand and carved a heart shaped piece before dropping it into the cauldron. The liquid simmered and the smoke turned navy blue.

"Now what?" Ron asked.

"We're supposed to wait for it to harden," Harry said. "Should take only few minutes."

The door opened right on time as Harry lay back on the floor, his back now hurting from leaning over a cauldron. Sirius and James walked in. "Hello, what is everyone doing in here?" James asked, noticing the cauldron.

"Harry's making a pet," Bonnie said, pointing to Harry as he gave a little wave.

"In a cauldron?" Sirius asked. Harry kicked Ron's knee before he started to blurt something out. No one said anything. "Okay, well the meeting is over, just to let you know. And Snape won five galleons on our bet for Ron and Hermione."

"Eww, Snape was betting on us?" Ron asked.

"Yep, I think Minnie persuaded him. Though apparently he knew you would get together so it got him some money. How lovely."

"It's not lovely," Hermione mumbled.

As soon as they left Harry sat back up and looked into his cauldron. "I think it's ready." He looked at the book and shrugged. He put out the fire under the cauldron and put his hands on the side.

"Harry what are you doing?" Hermione asked.

Harry turned over the cauldron and dumped the contents onto the floor, which was a strange type of dark blue goop now. In a few seconds the goop began to mold itself into a small body the size of a butterbeer bottle. It grew arms with hands that seemed larger than they should have been. Legs grew below them with feet before it stretched out to make the middle. A head began to push out from the shoulders, folding an outline of eyes, a nose, and a mouth along with two pointy ears. Then it began to harden again.

The five sat there, sitting around the strange stone creature, in amazement of what had just come from putting a few ingredients in a cauldron and then dumping it out. Harry looked to his friends. "Should we go to the next step?"

"What if something goes wrong with it?" Ginny asked.

"There's a counter spell. It's not really alive you know?"

They all nodded for him to continue. He took out his wand, and everyone was so interested to see what was going to happen they didn't even tell him not to use magic outside of school. He twirled it in his hand to move it pointing to the hardened creature. "Missh." There was a large puff of smoke and Hermione screamed but it was quickly muffled by Ron's hand. They all fell backwards to get away from the smoke that was spreading around them in purple fog.

After a few seconds of hiding their faces from the smoke it began to disappear into the air and they all crawled, while coughing at the leftover smoke, back over to the creature. They all stared mesmerized at the animal that was starting to blink at them. He had pale skin, large purple eyes, long skinny fingers, and pointy ears under dark black hair that came to his shoulders in waves. Many features of an actual human but he was, very plain to see, not a human.

"It's kind of cute," Ginny said tilting her head, as if to look at him from a different angle.

The little Missh looked up at Harry and quickly made a little bowing motion. "My Lord, I am pleased to meet you."

Harry smiled. "It is nice to meet you as well," he said nodding in his head politely. "It says you don't have a name and that I should choose one for you." The Missh nodded. Harry turned to his friends to think of a name. "We're going to call you Nam."

"What kind of name is that?" Ron asked.

"I don't know." Missh seemed pleased with the name though. "Let's just hope Hedwig doesn't eat him."

"Now we should make him some friends," Bonnie pointed out. Harry smiled and nodded moving an excited Nam to the side, unconcerned when he climbed to sit on his shoulder. For the next few hours, after Ginny had locked the door and told the order they were busy, they began creating their own Misshs'. (Mesh-his) Hermione was hesitant but cast her spell anyway. Not only did she notice that they hadn't gotten in trouble for doing magic outside of school but like everyone, was getting tired of the smoky fog.

Soon they all had their own Misshs. Hermione's Missh wore glasses, and had pink hair making her reflect Hermione's own smartsy but fun personality. She named it Datrah. They were like dolls that you designed yourself. Ron's Missh, Done, was surprising as it looked slightly like a warrior and made everyone think of chess as a battlefield. That was Ron. Ginny's Missh, Katrie, had red hair; not regular people red but a deep red, like a rose. It seemed to be quite quiet and observant but kept up with conversation between the other Misshs that sat on their master's shoulders. The last one was Bonnie's, who was like the goddess of love in a silk white dress and little white shoes that flapped on her heels. She had straight white shiny hair and shimmering eyes and moved flowingly and always carried a rose.

"She's so pretty," Bonnie said, moving onto her stomach to look at her more closely. " I love her," she said picking her up in her palm, a little too quickly causing her to plop down on her bottom. "I'm going to name her Venus, after the goddess of love." Venus smiled. She used her hands to push herself up onto her feet almost clumsily. She smiled and bowed throwing a rose at her own feet. A white puff of smoke came around her hand for a second where another rose formed. "Aww, she likes it to."

Ginny's Missh was sitting on her knee as she sat cross-legged beside Bonnie. "I think they're like little elves. They're really pretty."

Nam was sitting on the floor in front of Harry exactly like him. They were slightly alike. Even clothes wise. Nam wore a long sleeved, collared, black, button down shirt and tight black trousers with little black shoes. He was actually a very handsome Missh. He sat, like Harry, with his knees pointed into each other and his feet going out. Harry himself just had shorter hair and was wearing a black long sleeved shirt, tight black jeans and black shoes. Harry was back with the book trying to study more about the Misshs.

_The Misshs are very loyal and will do as they're told… They are usually not seen by people who aren't looking for them. They are easily hid in pockets, bags, or even on your shoulder as long as you don't draw much attention to it… Misshs only procreate if you want more of them without making a potion so make sure to watch them depending on how their personality works… Misshs will only live for a two-year minimum. If you would like them to live longer, on their two year birthday, feed them two drops of the 'birthday potion' as written on… Misshs make good friends…_

Harry ignored that page for now and turned to the back page. There was the page with the letter. He turned to the inside of the last page to see signatures.

_**I started this book but I won't tell you who I am. Please tell me who you are and then pass on the book to the next person in need. Sign your name here and send it to the next where they will find this page and sign their name to. Thanks for reading my book now sign your damn name you little twits. **_

_**Liz Slytherin**_

_Sally Haybourne_

Tipton Wills

_**Gwenaveire Malfoy **_

_**Hannaleise Hufflepuff**_

_Jennifer Ravenclaw V_

_**Godric Gryffindor XI**_

_**Pepper True**_

_Harold Potter _

Intender of Five (please tell me we are still known.)

Henry Holdstrom

Does anyone else think it's weird to read this book when the first person to read it was Liz Slytherin? Oh well. It's a good book. I love when things are passed on! - Taylor Ann

**Does anyone think it's weird that people are writing instead of signing their name? - Heather Troy**

_Soup is my favorite food. Can anyone read this? - Jonathan Two_

**I don't think I really got to enjoy the pranks in this book. The Marauders were in my school. But I love my Missh. And I don't think I would have gotten through school without this book. I'm going to be a healer now. So thanks. I hope the next person who gets this book needs it more than me. I'm going to leave it in the library. I don't have many friends and no one to give this book to. There is a huge war and I think anyone would be in need of it. If so… I hope they find it. **

**Lily Evans**

Harry stared, shocked, at the second from last signature on the page. '_Lily Evans_'. "Oh my God," Harry said staring shocked at the book. Everyone looked up at him.

"What is it Harry?" Hermione asked.

"In the back of this book, it's the signature of everyone who has ever used the book. The first one is Liz Slytherin. There are a few names we know: Gwenaveire Malfoy, Harold Potter. But I can't believe who this last name is."

"Why who is it?" Ron asked.

"…It's my mother," Harry said furrowing his brow in confusion. He set the book down on the floor for his friends to see. "Out of all the people I thought I would find on this page of signatures I didn't think it would be my mother."

"Why, is this a bad thing? Your mother isn't able to have fun in school?" Ginny asked.

"No it's just…. Out of all the stories I've heard my mother was a complete bookworm and had a huge grudge against people who didn't obey the rules. To think that she had made a probably illegal animal since it's so obviously not part of the animal kingdom and not take her notes in History whether it was boring or not and she sounded like she wanted to play the pranks. Everything I heard about my mother would never lead to the stuff they teach you in this book." Harry turned the page to somewhere near the front and stopped at a page titled, "Don't Put Me in Detention." "This entire chapter is how to silently obliviate your teachers so they won't remember what you did and have no reason to give you detention. My mother would never have that reason. She never got in trouble."

"Maybe that's why," Ginny pointed out. "And I think maybe you need to get to know your mother a little better. You learned about her from the marauder's point of view. Maybe they just didn't see all the stuff she did."

"Sounds like it I guess. It was just… surprising."

They all nodded.

"I think we should leave here soon. Dinner will be on soon and I think my mother has already left. She wouldn't be able to stay here this long. Plus the door is still locked and they don't know why we're in here. We should probably hide the Missh's and leave," Bonnie said.

"She's right," Ron said. "Where do we put the Missh?"

"The book says they won't be seen to people who aren't looking for them. You can hide them in a pocket, bag, or shoulder as long as you don't draw attention to it."

"Good, I'm hungry," Ron said. "What do these things eat anyway?"

"Same thing we do. In smaller portions," Harry said. "Come on Nam," Harry said holding out his hand. Nam climbed up and sat in Harry's palm leading him to his shoulder. Bonnie had Venus sit on her bag strap and everyone else put theirs on their shoulder. Ginny unlocked the door and they all headed out to the kitchen to find Mrs. Weasley finishing up dinner.

"Oh, you three finally decided to come out of the room?" Lily asked as she began to set the table. Mrs. Weasley hadn't let her help with the food yet, which was making Lily a bit offended but she was hiding it well enough.

"We were just having a nice conversation mum. The Order can lock themselves in a room for an hour to talk about things we can't listen to, we mine-as-well do the same to them," Harry said, just kidding.

"Hmm," Lily said, raising her eyebrows suspiciously toward them before quickly going back to the table. "Bonnie, are you joining us for dinner? I'm sure we would all love to get to know you," she smiled politely.

Bonnie and Harry were both thinking the same thing. Lily was like the perfect witch from those TV shows. Her hair soft, bouncy and wavy; her outfit pressed, elegant and simple. She had a pretty face, soft, flattering and warm. She was like Samantha from that TV show 'Bewitched'. Besides the twitchy nose.

"Oh, well I wouldn't want to intrude. I'm sure the table is already full. All the people that live in this house..." Bonnie said.

"Nonsense. The table always has room for more. I'll set a place for you," Lily said nicely, setting down another plate and smiling at them.

"Thank you," Bonnie said, happy to not be eating alone at the long empty table again tonight.

"It isn't really my place to invite more people over but its not like Sirius is cooking so he really can't complain can he?" Lily laughed. Harry led his friends upstairs quickly so they could put their Misshs in their rooms so they wouldn't have to bother. The Misshs sat patiently on the pillows of the beds. Bonnie's Missh stayed with the other two girls.

They then headed back downstairs and sat at the table to watch Mrs. Weasley insist that Lily sit down and rest.

"Mrs. Weasley, please let me help. I just came back from the dead, I'm not sick," Lily insisted.

Mrs. Weasley sighed and finally let her help a bit. They all knew it was because Lily was younger and Mrs. Weasley thought her 'incapable.' "Hey mum?" Harry asked.

"Hmm?" Lily asked, slightly distracted now that she got what she wanted.

"Where is dad?"

Lily paused for a split second but continued. "Oh, he's around."

"With Sirius and Remus?"

"Mhmm," she hummed.

"Are they in the house?"

"Not actually, no. Why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to know what they were doing? I mean, dad is still dead to the community and Sirius is still an escaped murderer. Are they allowed outside?"

"They're with Remus."

"Where are they?"

"No more questions dear. You'll spoil your appetite," Lily claimed. What appetite, Harry asked himself. "So Bonnie. Your mother seems very nice," Lily said. "I'm sure you're happy she'll be working at school, hmm?"

"Oh, I couldn't be any more happy to be able to see my mother every single day in the only place of sanctuary," Bonnie said sarcastically.

"Anyone made a guess at who the new Defense teacher is?" Lily asked.

"So she isn't the Defense teacher?" Bonnie asked. "Thank Merlin. I've been having nightmares about how many different ways she could cause death in each lesson," Bonnie said, putting her hand over her heart.

"No, she didn't tell you what she was teaching?" Lily asked, turning to set something on the table in front of them.

"My mother and me don't often talk. Besides, it is Dumbledore's job to keep it from us till we get to school. We shouldn't be any different from the rest of the students just because our parents are involved in a secret order that happens to involve all the teachers."

Lily laughed and set something else on the table as Molly did the same thing. They both sat down just in time for James, Sirius, Remus, Arthur, Moody, the other Weasleys and few other order members joined in at the table. Everyone began to eat but Lily continued the conversation with Bonnie. Interested in getting to know her.

"So we haven't met your father. What does he do?" Lily asked.

"You probably won't meet him," Bonnie said sadly. "He's a muggle."

"I suspected as much, and what does he do?"

"He works for the Ministry."

"Doing what?" James asked, also interested. Bonnie noticed that everyone was listening now.

"Oh uh, he's the um… new… British Prime Minister," she said quietly. Someone down the table dropped their fork.

"_Your father_?" Fred asked.

"So that's why you have a butler?" Ron asked. Someone else's fork dropped. The five kids seemed to be the only ones not shocked even though the only ones that knew were Harry and Bonnie.

"Yeah."

"Wow, your father controls Fudge," James said.

"But aren't you Irish?" Charlie asked.

"I am. I was born in Ireland but my father is British. I didn't move here till I was seven and went to school with Harry. But we moved to France when my Father decided to work for them instead when I was eleven, which is why I didn't go to Hogwarts. And then we moved back here this summer when my father won for Prime Minister."

"So that's how you and Harry know each other," Remus asked. "You never said."

"Yeah, Harry the little artist went to the same little prodigy school I did," she said, but hadn't noticed what she had admitted till it came out.

"Prodigy school?" Lily asked.

"I think that's enough of the twenty-twenty questions," Harry asked, trying to break up the conversation.

"No," James interrupted. "What prodigy school?"

"So Bonnie was the one you learned German with?" Ron asked, remembering the conversation. "Young prodigy. I get it now."

"What exactly are you a young prodigy in?" Sirius asked.

Harry sighed. "Are you asking me or Bonnie?"

"You… then Bonnie."

"I'm supposed to be a very skilled artist. Or as my teachers would say the next Da Vinci, which I wasn't seeing but whatever. And I was also accepted to the school because I picked up the piano very quickly."

"And I'm a math genius and physics wacko, which is why I'm so good at potion making. Math is more or less than useless in the wizarding world. Except Arithmancy."

"So, you went to a school for young prodigies for five years and you didn't feel the need to tell anyone about it?" Sirius asked.

"It was seven years actually. And I thought I had enough fame at the time," Harry said.

"True…. You know we have a piano―"

"No," Harry said quickly. "We can get off this conversation any time you know?"

"Oh I know. But I find it strangely interesting."

"Doesn't everyone," Harry said, looking down at the table.

"Sirius, leave them alone," Lily reprimanded. "Or we'll start talking about how you and James used to dress up as girls. That always makes for an interesting story," Lily smiled. James and Sirius lowered their heads. Conversation around the table started off on James, Sirius and Remus and their school days, sure to keep out Peter from the stories. Harry caught a look from his mother and smiled thankful that she changed the subject. Harry was finding a newfound respect for his mother.

When dinner was over they all went upstairs to hang for a while before Bonnie had to leave. They congregated in Ron and Harry's room with their Misshs and talked for a little while before Bonnie grabbed her bag to head home. They headed downstairs and to the fireplace to see her off. Bonnie pulled Harry into a hug whispering in his ear. "See you in the morning," with a mischievous smile.


	8. I Wish I Could Have You

8

I Wish I Could Have You.

Harry woke up to a nudge at his shoulder. He turned over and looked into the face of his tiny friend Nam. "What?" Harry asked tiredly. Nam pointed one of his fingers at his mouth in what obviously indicated the words 'feed me'. "It's early in the morning. Can't you eat some other time?"

"I'll join you, Harry," groaned Ron from the other side of the room, sitting up in bed. "Done won't leave me alone." Harry stood up and changed from his pajamas before they both headed downstairs to be met with Hermione and Ginny sitting tiredly at a table falling asleep in their tea while their Misshs ate from the small plates of food.

Sirius, James, and Remus were staring at them strangely. Harry and Ron sat down at the table with them and Nam and Done joined them in eating while Ron and Harry had some coffee.

"Now you're all getting up early?" Remus asked.

"It's nice to get up early," Hermione yawned. "Can't waste the day away."

Harry put his head on the table beside Ron's and closed his eyes.

"If you're all so tired, why didn't you stay in bed? We were going to throw water on Harry if he had stayed sleeping," Sirius asked.

"We're not tired," Ginny said, sleeping in her arm.

"You make a good argument Ginny," Remus laughed.

"Why are you three up? Aren't you supposed to sleep in till 12?" Ron asked.

"Not on Harry's birthday," James said as if it should be obvious.

"Why?" Harry asked tiredly. "Nothing happens in the morning. Or in the afternoon."

"Well like we said, we were going to throw water on you. And something might happen."

Harry didn't catch the hint and stayed sleeping in his elbow. Ginny opened one of her eyes to see Sirius and James holding a bucket of cold water and carrying it over to Harry. She moved away slightly and watched.

Remus pushed the end of the bucket letting it tip over Harry's head getting him soaking wet. He jumped as soon as the first drop hit him and was now wide-awake, standing up, dripping from head to toe. Everyone else at the table was awake now too from uncontrollable laughter.

"Ooh, I'm gonna kill you," Harry said, his voice shaking from the cold water.

"No you're not. I'll just come back to life again," James smiled. Harry walked over to the marauders and took the now empty bucket. He touched the bottom of the bucket and slowly pulled his hand out. He smiled and dumped a newly full bucket of water over the three of their heads. Before gently setting the bucket over Sirius's head.

Lily then walked into the room. "What is going on here?" she asked.

"Father thought it would be a lovely present to dump water over my head," Harry said, his voice still shaking. "Now I won't have to sow up my pants. They're going to shrink." Harry then turned and stomped out of the room. Nam jumped onto his shoulder and went with him.

"James?" Lily asked, a smile now growing on her face at the sight of them. "You didn't expect him not to fight back did you?"

"I just want to know how he got water in the bucket without a wand or a faucet. "

"What did he use?"

"His hand."

Lily rolled her eyes and looked to Harry's friends who were still half-asleep on the table. "You three going to help keep Harry away from the house while we set up?"

"Yep," Ginny said.

"We're going to Bonnie's house," Hermione said. "We're going to meet her butler."

"Oh, sounds fun. I suggest you all get dressed so you can head over after breakfast. I talked Ron's mother into letting me cook." Sirius, Remus, and James looked hopeful at this news. Lily was a miracle in the kitchen. Hermione nodded before being the first to get up, Datrah climbing onto her arm and Ginny and Ron followed along.

Lily went to the counter and started to cook, laughing quietly at the excited faces of Sirius, Remus, and James. "Oh Lily. I miss your cooking. It's always like eating clouds from heaven," Sirius said.

"Thank you Sirius," Lily said, stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth along with James and Remus. "That should hold you over for a few minutes."

Upstairs Harry was still wet. He was just changing his shirt when the door opened. Suddenly used to this he didn't think anything of it.

"So you do have a tattoo," Hermione said.

"Ah shit," Harry mumbled. He turned around while pulling down his shirt, watching Ginny's mouth fall at the sight of his chest and stomach but she quickly snapped it shut. "Yes, I have a tattoo."

"Did you draw it or did someone else?" Ron asked, setting his Missh on his bed.

"I drew the actual design, someone else traced it. I couldn't reach that spot and draw anything well. It's just a cross," Harry said.

"It's very nice though," Hermione commented. "Getting into our religion these days?" she asked.

"Yeah, maybe I'm hoping God can save me from getting killed. Or letting Voldemort take over."

"Well, I'm looking forward to a change of cook, so I'm gonna go change so we can head down to breakfast," Ginny said, heading to the door, coming back to grab Hermione to drag with her before leaving.

Over in Hermione and Ginny's room Ginny sat Hermione down. "Hermione, I totally think of Harry as just a friend nowadays, you know. I understand that he has no interest in me that way and I've gotten over it. But is it totally wrong to still think him totally hot and lose control over my knees when I see him with his shirt off?"

"Actually, I have to admit that I felt the same way. I mean, I love Ron, he's my boyfriend. But, nobody can deny that Harry is a total hottie. I think he even saw the way I was looking at him when we discovered his lip ring and he told me that it was a place for girls to put their teeth. I thought it weird for a moment but I couldn't help but imagine me doing the very thing. I have a feeling that it must be very wrong."

"No, I feel the same way. We just have to get this off our minds. I think Bonnie has a real thing for him anyway. At least she has a real chance because I see the way he looks at her to."

"You noticed? I think it's really cute. Although I kind of imagined Harry without a girlfriend for a really long time. Every time I tried to think of what Harry's perfect girlfriend would be like I more pictured him alone. I guess now that he's shown his true colors I can see it now. He's a punk prodigy who will have to save the world. I don't know what he sees that is so great in Bonnie. I haven't found it yet. But it obviously makes him happy. And I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing Harry fulfill that bet. Though I think Bonnie might help him ruin it and make us all lose. But they would be cute together."

\-\-\-\-\

They all met up in the kitchen and sat down to be served a lovely breakfast by Lily helped by Mrs. Weasley since she didn't seem able to sit down. Harry took a bite of his breakfast and felt his heart lift as if he had never tasted any food like it. He never really enjoyed food; it was just keeping him alive. Now he loved food. He would be adding meat onto his bones as the summer wore on and knew he would now have to start actually working out to keep up the muscular body that had come naturally to him forever.

"Your mother is a wonderful cook isn't she?" James asked leaning closer to Harry. Harry nodded smiling.

After breakfast Harry and the others were about to head over to Bonnie's. Their parents didn't seem too excited that there would be no parental watch around them. "Please mum," Harry complained as his mother hugged him, not wanting him to be in danger. Harry didn't know why she was acting so weird about this. Even his father was looking at him weird. "I've been in more dangerous stuff without adults around than this. Last year I was possessed by Voldemort, I think I'll be able to live without you for a few hours."

"You were what?" Lily asked seriously, holding him at arm's lengths.

"Son that really isn't the topic of conversation to bring up when your mother is having a panic attack," James pointed out.

"I think I caught that hint."

Lily pulled him back into a hug.

"Be careful okay? And if anything goes wrong or something happens you come straight back or contact someone. Same goes for you three," she said to his friends, who nodded, knowing why she was being weird. She was afraid Harry would have magic overdose while he was gone. It was his birthday and nothing had happened yet.

They all flooed to Bonnie's house.

Bonnie was there waiting for them. "Finally you're here. Nanny was driving me insane. Her boyfriend is over today and he keeps giving me funny looks," she said quickly while pulling the four away from the fireplace. "I'm sure you've all eaten, yes?" she asked.

"Yes," Ron answered first. "Harry, let me be the first to admit what a god your mother is in the kitchen. I felt like I was eating clouds at breakfast," he said as if it had to be enforced.

"Me to. Everyone knows I don't have a huge thing for food and my mother made me finish off everything. If I have to live with her for two years I'm actually going to lose the sight of my ribs."

"I think that's a good thing Harry," Hermione pointed out.

"Well anyway," Bonnie interrupted, "What are we doing today? I have everything in my house you could find in Hogwarts. We have a television to. Thanks to my complaining. Plus Harry's favorite thing about my house. The training rooms. We have a dueling room and weaponry."

"Bonnie, maybe you should just give us a tour," Harry suggested.

"Okay," she said, looking pleasantly happy today. She turned around, flinging the back of her flowy knee skirt to the air. She then led them out of the floory to a very white hall that was her entranceway. The large two doors looked different from the inside of the house. Two large glass doors that allowed you to see the outside. The walls were a light yellow color decorated with fine art and mirrors. There was a small table under the mirror with a vase of flowers. The floor was a perfectly shined white tile.

"Wow, it's very… shiny," Ginny said.

Bonnie laughed. "Thanks. Follow me." They headed from the entranceway and into the hall that was plain besides some pictures so it didn't look too plain. They walked into one entrance that didn't have a door like much of the house. The first room was the living room that Bonnie told them was the first living room, for personal meetings of family: mother, father, and daughter. Whenever that time came. It was a lovely living room though. There was a loveseat in the middle of two cozy chairs that looked quite expensive and rustic. The room was warm and the way Bonnie talked about her parents didn't seem to mesh with the way the room was decorated.

They then headed to the back of the room where a wood door was placed. Bonnie opened the door and led them through. "This is my father's study. But he's never really here to use it," she said, as if she wasn't hurt at the prospect. It was a very nice study. There was a window right beside the desk; the blinds were pulled down over it giving the entire room shade from the bright sun. There was a comfy leather chair behind a black desk that was laid with paper and pencils so perfectly set that it was clear no one had set foot in here for a while besides to dust. Bonnie stood at the desk and lined a pencil up with the binder of paper beside it. "I think my dad made the office to make it look like he actually came here often. Or maybe to make me feel better." They headed out of the study and into another hallway. The first thing Hermione saw was the open door that showed books. Bonnie knew that she saw it. So she led them into the library.

Hermione almost fainted into Ron's arms at the sight of it. Instead she just slipped onto the floor in Indian style and stared in shock at all the books before her. "Oh my sweet Jesus," she whispered to herself as Ron joined her, kneeling on the floor to see if she was okay. "Bonnie, do you happen to have a boyfriend?" she asked still in a daze.

"Uh, no. Why?"

"Because I love you," she said, though Bonnie took the point as a joke and laughed. "Can I move in and live in your library?" she asked, sounding completely serious.

"Sure," Bonnie said. "You'll just have to get used to the Nanny and butler and my father's intruding business associates that come by uninvited, following you around to see what the minister's family is like. You can be the hermit that lives in the library."

"People come into your house uninvited?" Hermione asked, tearing her eyes away from all the walls.

Bonnie lifted a finger and pointed to the door. There was a man, somewhere in his mid-twenties standing at the door.

"Little Bonnie," he said walking in. Ron helped Hermione off the floor. Hermione saw Harry's face first and he didn't look very happy. He was moving slightly in front of Ginny as if protecting her.

"Please, you're only ten years older then me. I'm hardly little," she defended, her voice cold and harsh.

"I can see that," he said, pervertedly looking her over with raised eyebrows. Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest as if to hide herself. Harry took it as his moment to step in.

"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" Harry asked stepping forward to distract the man from Bonnie as well.

The man turned to him with wondering eyes. "Shouldn't you be with yours?"

"She's at a wedding. We like to leave our relationship to nighttime. Maybe you should try it as well. Then you wouldn't have to sneak into people's homes to see your girlfriend."

"Maybe you should stop standing up to people who are a foot taller than you," he said stepping forward so Harry had to look up. Harry looked up and glared at him. He then looked down defeated. ― "Alex just go away," Bonnie said. ―The man looked like he had won but while he was distracted with his smile to Bonnie; Harry swung a foot at the man's feet making him topple over. Harry grabbed his arms and flipped him onto his stomach and slammed his face to the floor while putting a knee in the man's back.

"Harry," Hermione cried.

Harry ignored her. "I have fought my uncle, the biggest man in the world, and you didn't think I could take a scrawny little man like you down," Harry whispered in his ear. "If you ever look at Bonnie, or any of my friends like that again, I will shove my knee straight through your spine and run your wheel chair off a cliff. Got it?" Harry asked in a deadly soft tone.

"Mhmm," was all he could answer with his cheek pressed against the floor.

"Good, I hope I've taught you a lesson," Harry said quietly. He moved off of him and stood, standing the man up by his collar in one fluid pull. "Now I sense that your girlfriend is in her room. I suggest you go join her."

The man glared at him but left the room. When he left the room Harry turned back to his friends. They all raised their eyebrows at him.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. He was a pretty easy target I guess," Harry said.

"You didn't have to actually attack him you know?" Bonnie asked, though she looked less tense and pleased that he was gone.

"Oh but if I didn't he would have never learned his lesson. And who wants perverts infecting the light side?" he asked. Bonnie rolled her eyes. Harry walked behind her and put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her along. "Now we must finish the lovely tour of the house. Hermione can move in later," Harry joked. Bonnie headed forward and Harry let go of her shoulders as everyone continued to follow her. They headed into the music room that was a lovely deep blue color for the walls and white wood floors. There was a black piano, a harp, a violin, and an oboe.

"Look Harry," said Ron provokingly. "A piano. Feel like playing?"

"No," Harry said straightforward.

"Come on Harry. You'll have to show us sometime and it might as well be now where you won't have to show off to your parents," Ginny pointed out. Harry sighed heavily.

"Fine, I'll play. But I may be quite rusty. The Dursleys took away the piano when they found out I was good at it," he said walking over to the piano. He slid off his black casual suit jacket and threw it to Bonnie who caught it rolling her eyes. Though she knew it was just one of Harry's quirks. He couldn't draw or play the piano without rolling up his sleeves or taking off his jacket. He sat down on the bench and sighed. "What shall I play? Mary had a little lamb?" he asked turning to them questioningly.

"If you're a prodigy I'm sure you can play something a bit more complicated," Hermione said, taking up a fancy chair followed by Ginny as Ron sighed into a cozy armchair.

"Actually, Harry's version of Marry had a little Lamb is quite interesting to listen to," Bonnie giggled. Harry glared at her.

"Wanna hear what my homework was?" he asked his friends.

"Sure," Hermione agreed.

Harry turned to the piano. "We had to combine our favorites into one of our own. So I took Motzart's best five and combined them together into my own creation that I take as… very interesting," Harry said, rubbing his palms together. He stretched them out and stretched his fingers. He looked down at the keys of the piano as if they were delicious dishes of food just waiting to be eaten. He put three fingers over three keys and started to slowly start out the piano on three notes that reminded them all of the dance steps 'one, two, cha cha cha.' He then started to speed it up to a speed no one thought they would accomplish with three fingers. It was so fast that three notes had turned to one beautiful note. He then began to start the song, drawing out the other key's notes with his other hands and the ones around the main note with his thumb and pinky. It was all so fast but beautiful none the less and the occupants of the room listening to the piano felt like they were listening to Mozart himself. When it was almost finished the notes of the rest of the keys seemed to lessen and they were soon back to just the one note that also calmed itself into three before Harry stopped. He breathed out and turned around to the shocked faces of his friends.

"Knew I should have played Mary had a little Lamb," he said.

"Oh Harry, it was beautiful," Hermione said quietly.

"Thanks," Harry smiled.

"How did you learn to move your fingers so fast?" Ginny asked, feeling stupid after she asked it. "That first note. It was beautiful."

Harry smiled and Bonnie knew he was going to be modest.

"Those are his master keys. He uses them in everything. By changing around those three keys he can make any note he wants and add it into the song making it sound beautiful. Harry was the first to find it. He got an award. There was a whole ceremony at our school."

"What happened to it?" Ron asked. "I've never seen a medal or anything."

"Oh that's because the medal is here with Bonnie, and my uncle threw the papers that said anything about it into the fire. I was still young and hoping that I could make them like me more by making them proud. I just made them more angry that I had outdone Dudley. That's why, for years, I never felt happy when I did something right or outstanding because I wasn't expecting much praise from anyone besides teachers and Bonnie."

"Can we see the medal?" Hermione asked.

"Oh if I can find it," Bonnie said, taking a breath. "I haven't exactly finished unpacking my things yet. But we can take the chance." They all stood and followed her up the tall stairs and down a steep hallway of white tile. There was a long red door at the end of the hallway with a gold doorknob. It looked quite out of place in the white hallway. Bonnie took out her wand and tapped the handle before pushing open the door and leading them into a bright room full of brown boxes. They had all been moved to the back of the large room but that didn't make it any less of an amount. All her furniture was out and set up with her sheets, she had a white desk vertical to a tall window like the ones in the library. It had dark pink curtains that looked like a blooming rose. Her floor was a white wood. Her walls were red with white chrome detail on the walls and ceiling. It was a truly masterful room. There was a vase of roses sitting on the floor at the corner of her bed and a matching one on the other side. There was another on the desk and one on top of her dresser. And a bowl of roses floating in clear water on a small vanity with a metal framed mirror above it.

"Wow, you have a beautiful room," Ginny said.

"Thanks," she said, going over to her closet. While she was looking Harry invited himself to wander her room. He went to her vanity and picked up a clear bottle on the edge of the basin. He held it up to his nose and smiled. "Still bottling your own perfume?" he asked her.

"Since I was five," she said, coming back out of the closet with a piece of paper and a medal. It was gold, with the engraving of a piano on it. She handed it to Harry to look at. "And you are just so lucky. You made a copy of your award and gave it to me. So I have that to."

"I think I might have done that on purpose. Knowing my uncle I was probably expecting it. I was such a smart prodigy," he said, as if talking to a four-year-old. He took the laminated paper from Bonnie and looked at it. "Wow, I had better handwriting then than I do now." The others came over to look. It read:

Mr. Harry James Potter has been awarded this gold medal for his creation and having discovered this one note on the piano formed from three keys. We thank him greatly for his achievement in the piano and how impressive it is that he has discovered this wonderful and beautiful note.

Awarded by ―Henry Brockston

Awarded to ―Harry Potter

"Wow, that's good Harry. So I guess if you graduated from that art school you would have gotten a good job," Hermione said.

"Yeah, but that's okay. I forgot how nice the drama at Grimmuald Place is. Plus, if I had never come back I wouldn't have found you two kissing and I wouldn't have gotten my money."

"You two were kissing?" Bonnie asked surprised.

"Oh yeah, we didn't tell you," Harry realized.

"Well congratulations," Bonnie said. "I would have never known. You two don't act very mushy toward each other for a happy new couple."

"We're doing that for Harry's benefit. The fact that he insisted we burn the sheets tells us he doesn't want us touching each other while he's around," Ron said.

"Oh I'm sorry you guys. That's not what I was implying. You can hold hands and give each other little pecks on the lips or whatever else you want. Just as long as you don't snog each other on my bed. I'm sorry if I made you think I don't like your relationship. I'm happy for you," Harry explained.

Hermione smiled and hugged him. "I'm so glad you're okay with it Harry. I promise, we'll snog on Ron's bed," she smiled jokingly.

"Thanks," he laughed. "I'll remember to knock."

Bonnie took the award back and placed it back in her closet. "So what do we want to do now?"

"Can I ask a question?" Ginny asked. Bonnie nodded. "Why are there so many roses in your room?"

"Oh, I love roses. They're my favorite. They stand for remembrance," she said going over to one of the vases and coming back with a rose while continuing, "and when you are a child, with parents who care more for their job than they do for you and leave you alone most of the time..." She looked up from the rose and handed it to Ginny. "Everyone loves to be remembered."

"So you placed them all around your room?"

"Yep. They smell pretty. So what are we doing?"

\-\-\-\-\-\-\

For the rest of the day they stayed in the library since it was beautiful and sat on the floor in the 'tall window sunlight.' They were letting the Misshs wander around the floors and they started to play tag. So far the frolicking little Venus was catching everyone after she had taken off her slippers.

The girls had decided to take a look at the library and Bonnie was helping to point out all the more interesting books that Hermione had never even heard of. Some even muggle books. Bonnie's favorite, "Gone With the Wind" was still sitting on top of the table.

Ron moved over closer to Harry as they watched Nam trample Venus just to tag her. Harry was leaning back on his elbows and gave a quick look to Bonnie that Ron caught.

"Hey Harry," Ron said, catching his attention. Harry looked over at him. "Are you sure you and Bonnie are just friends?"

"What do you mean am I sure?" Harry asked, as if it were an outrageous question. "We've been friends since we were seven."

"I know but… do you think you like her a little more than that? Maybe? I've seen the way you look at her."

"I don't know what you're talking about Ron. I look at her the same way I look at Hermione."

"No, you look at her the way_ I _look at Hermione. Maybe more dotingly. But it's obvious Harry."

"Is not." Harry shut his mouth quickly knowing he had just admitted to it. "I do not have a thing for Bonnie," he quickly added. "I have a girlfriend."

"And none of us even know what her name is. You're obviously not expecting it to last."

"Exactly. It's not supposed to. I can't have a real girlfriend. I'm not allowed. It's going against the safety I'm trying to put up for the people I love. If I'm number one on Voldemort's hit list they're all number two. And he'll move for all of you first. I don't want to put anyone closer to that number."

"Harry that is so out of it. Everyone is going to be in trouble in this war anyway. Why not be happy? Bonnie looks at you the same way."

"She does not. We're friends." Harry leaned all way back on the floor and closed his eyes away from the light.

"Whatever you want to think Harry," Ron said, lying back as well.

\-\-\-\-\

A few minutes later the girls came over. "Harry, what are you doing?" Ginny asked.

Harry took a breath and said, as if he had thought about it, "I think I'm dying."

"What?" Hermione asked urgently down at his side.

"I have this searing pain going up my arm. Isn't that sign of a heart attack?" Harry asked. Though his voice sounded completely calm for a person having a heart attack.

"Are you kidding? You sound way too calm," Bonnie had to ask.

"A shooting pain up your arm is nothing to being possessed. Hermione, would you like to grab a book and look it up or do you think we should go straight to the hospital?" he asked, sounding completely serious.

"I think we'll go straight to the hospital," she said worriedly. "Can you move?"

"I'll make it," he said, sitting up and opening his eyes. Ron helped him stand up and Bonnie took his other side.

"What arm hurts?" she asked quickly.

"The one Ron is gripping," he said, his voice strained by the pain. Ron quickly loosened his grip and gave a slight, "Sorry."

"Now it's the one on your side again," he said as they continued to walk to the floo. Bonnie pulled up his sleeve and saw him clenching his fist and the vein pulsing up his arm. Harry always had to hold it in.

"You know, I've never heard of a wizard, let alone a sixteen year old one, having a heart attack," Hermione said. "But you'll go to the hospital wing with Ron and Bonnie and me and Ginny will go inform Grimmuald Place." They all nodded and Bonnie pulled Harry into the fireplace with her. Ron climbed in as well and threw down the ash as Bonnie held on to Harry. Bonnie helped Harry out of the fireplace and Ron followed after.

"You put him into a bed, I'll get Madam Pomfrey," Ron said, leaving them. Bonnie was quickly moving him along to a bed when he suddenly collapsed onto the floor. She screamed in surprise at the fall. She quickly followed him to the floor.

"Okay," he said hoarsely. "It's not a heart attack."

"Alright. Come on, we have to get you into bed," she said quickly, pulling him up and moving him to the closest bed. "Harry, you have to lie down," she said, tenderly as he sat down with his feet over the edge. He was hunched over holding his arm and his stomach.

"I can't lie down," he muttered.

"Well you're going to have to," Madam Pomfrey said, walking into the room. "Lie down Mr. Potter."

"I can't."

"Why? Is there a sharp hook in your back as well?" she asked.

"First use of sarcasm is not going to get to me," Harry complained.

"Mr. Potter, if you do not lie down, you are going to pass out and stay that way for a _very long time_." That got Harry to grudgingly lie down on his back. "You two, will wait outside for the others and tell them the same."

"I have a date tonight," Harry whined, closing his eyes at the pain that was surging through his entire body. It was like being electrocuted. And Harry was guessing that if it continued for a bit longer it would feel like the cruciatus.

"Yes and it is now with me," Madam Pomfrey said. "Happy birthday Harry," she said with a smile.

Harry groaned before Pomfrey shoved a potion down his throat.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\

James and Lily ran up to Ron and Bonnie in the hallway. "Is he okay?" Lily asked quickly.

"We wouldn't know. Madam Pomfrey locked us out. She doesn't want anyone going in till she says so," Bonnie said, looking thoroughly upset.

"Well that's okay. We're expected to be in Dumbledore's office. If she let's you in and Harry is awake, please let him know we'll be by soon." Ron and Bonnie nodded as Hermione and Ginny came up to them carrying five Misshs on their shoulders.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

It was an entire four hours before they were allowed into the hospital wing. Ron, Hermione and Ginny had decided to go down to the library, per Ron's request to Hermione's surprise but utter excitement.

So when Madam Pomfrey said they could come in Bonnie was the only one there. She went in and sat beside Harry's bed as Madam Pomfrey went back into her office. Bonnie swept back his hair softly.

"I'm awake you know?" Harry said, his voice hoarse.

"I know," she said, continuing to sweep her fingers through his hair. Harry took a deep breath and sighed, his eyes still closed, feeling relaxed in her presence. "How are you feeling?"

"I was feeling like shit. That was before Madam Pomfrey stopped shoving potions down my throat." Bonnie smiled and moved her hand to stroke Harry's cheek. Harry moved into her touch with a light moan.

Bonnie smiled and pulled her hand back to leave her chair. She climbed onto the bed like she did when they were younger. When Harry used to end up in the hospital for bad headaches or a bad bruising. She crawled in next to him and lay down on the pillows. She reached up and moved a hand through his hair before relaxing into his side. She moved his elbow and put their arms together and laced their fingers. Harry sighed in satisfaction of her being so close; he could smell the rose perfume that she always wore. She always smelled of roses.

"So, what's wrong with you this time," she asked, thumbing the back of his hand.

"She wouldn't tell me. I have to wait for my parents."

"Oh."

"Where are they by the way? I thought they would be right here."

"They're up talking to Dumbledore. They said they'd be down in a while but that was four hours ago so I don't know what they're talking about."

"Mmm," Harry hummed, not really seeming to care as long as they were alive. Bonnie watched his tired eyes that hadn't opened yet. He looked peaceful as if asleep.

"Are you still in pain?" she asked.

"No… pain relief potion." Bonnie nodded. Harry slowly opened his eyes to look at her. Her beautiful soft face, that silky skin, the long, curly locks of blond hair. And the bright blue eyes. Bonnie noticed the way he was looking at her and fidgeted under his stare. He glanced away.

"You want me to go get your other friends?" she asked, picking up new conversation.

"Not right now," he said, looking at her again.

"…What?" she asked quietly, blushing and shrugging her shoulders.

Harry just shook his head. "Nothing." He looked away. Bonnie looked at him questioningly but ignored it. She shifted slightly and put her head on his shoulder. Harry set his head on her's, taking in the scent of her hair. Roses. Thinking silently to himself as he tightened the grip on their laced fingers, _I wish I could have you. _


	9. The Party I Didn't Get

9

The Party I Didn't Get

Harry fell asleep resting on Bonnie's head as she quietly fell asleep at his shoulder, both clutching the others arm. In their sleep they looked like they were together, but if when they woke up they were caught, they would say they're just close friends. Because neither of them will admit the real feelings they have. Both scared that it will harm the friendship when the other admits they don't feel the same way. So for now, they'll silently love each other. And clutch each other as if their life depended on that other person, while in their sleep.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny were heading back to see if they could see Harry but saw Harry's parents go through the door first and thought it best to give them time alone. So they went back to the library. Just for a bit.

James and Lily however walked into the hospital wing seeing nothing out of the ordinary till they got to Harry's bed. Bonnie was fast asleep with Harry, who looked as though he had never slept so well in his life, even though his arm was twisted up with Bonnie's and they were in a peculiar configuration. James looked to Lily. "Are we sure they aren't dating?"

"Pretty sure."

"They never let you crawl into my bed when I was in the hospital wing," James complained.

"That's because you always had a broken leg. Not a power surge."

"Should we wake them up?"

"I think we should." Lily moved forward and gently touched Harry's shoulder. "Harry, Bonnie, wake up," she said gently.

Harry peeked one eye open to see his parents but then closed it again. "I don't want to talk. It's tiring," he said groggily.

James smiled. "Harry, we have to talk."

"So talk, I can hear you just fine."

"I think Bonnie should leave first."

"Fine," he said. He opened his eyes and moved just slightly causing Bonnie to wake.

She looked around her and at Harry's parents sitting on the bed beside them. "I should probably get out of Harry's bed huh?" she asked to no one unparticular. She quickly pulled away and Harry visibly sighed, as he had to unlace his fingers from hers, though Bonnie didn't catch it. She climbed off the bed and grabbed her bag that sat at the end of it with Venus. "I'll see you later Kumquat."

"Bye," he said, still groggily. He waited till she was out of the door before repositioning himself. His parents walked over to his bed and sat on the edge of his bed as he sat up against the backboard.

"Have a nice sleep?" James asked, smiling at his son's misfortune of being caught.

"It was lovely thank you. Have a nice chat with Dumbledore while your son was having potions shoved down his throat?" Harry asked rudely, to emphasize his annoyance.

"Sorry about that. We wanted to be here when you woke up but we had to discuss some things. You see; there is something that goes along with the prophecy. A 'power surge' of sorts. Your magical power, until now, has been limited to a small amount and now it's coming into full strength. According to Dumbledore, who has been studying it for some time now, says that your powers will… well that it might surpass even that of Merlin's. That's why you were in so much pain. So much power and it had no where to go. Do you understand Harry?"

Harry was silent for a second and was looking at his sheets. He was just trying to soak in the information he had been given. He didn't feel any more powerful. Especially any more powerful then that of the great Merlin that everyone worships. Not him. He knew he was supposed to be powerful enough to take down Voldemort but no one can surpass Merlin.

"Harry?" James asked again.

"Merlin?" Harry asked, his face confused again.

"Yes, you are going to be more powerful than Merlin."

Harry raised his eyes to his father slowly, and gulped. "Does the fact that I don't want to be as powerful as Merlin sound stupid?"

"No sweetie of course not. But it's not a bad thing," Lily said, scooting closer to him. "Power is very important to the wizarding world. The more power you have the more you can do."

Harry shook his head. "But I don't believe that. I don't want to be more powerful than my friends are. I don't want to be more powerful than the person that the wizarding world worships. I don't want to be worshiped. Though I guess no one ever gets what they want do they?"

"It's a sad world Harry, but at least you have a way to make it better."

"Oh yeah, cause even with this power I'll succeed. I doubt it."

"Are you always so negative?" James asked.

"Just since this summer. It was only after Sirius died that Dumbledore decided to tell me about the prophecy and depression seemed to take over my mind to make me so negative. Sorry."

"Harry, darling, I promise, that your father and I will do whatever we can to make you happy and to help you through this," Lily said, pulling Harry to her in a hug. "You don't have to be all by yourself in this."

"I don't want to be Merlin," Harry complained while leaning into his mother's hug.

\-\-\-\-\

Harry sat up in his bed talking with his friends as the Misshs played at the end of Harry's sheets.

Sirius and Remus walked into the room. "Well Harry," said Sirius, "since your little power surge ruined our plans of a surprise party for you, we decided to bring the party to you."

"Well it's a good thing I had a heart attack," Harry said. "I hate surprises."

"Lovely, so…" Sirius said as a group of people fled into the room. All the Weasleys, some of the Order, and some of his professors as well. There were a few waves of some wands and the hospital wing looked like a party. Madam Pomfrey came out and only looked slightly perturbed.

"Aww, thanks you guys. This is so nice. You didn't have to throw me a party," Harry said.

"Like those muggles you used to live with would have ever thrown you a party. So we decided to throw one for you," Mrs. Weasley said.

"We got cake and everything," George said.

"Don't ask how we got it here," said Fred.

The cake was set on a table near Harry because he wasn't allowed out of bed. His father lit up sixteen candles around the cake and told Harry to make a wish. Harry couldn't think of anything to wish for. Everyone was here with him and he thought that wishing for Voldemort to trip over his own feet and die was a bit gruesome for a birthday wish. So instead he wished for something that probably wouldn't come true without a miracle. _I wish I could have Bonnie, without the threat of getting her hurt. _He was given a knife and asked to cut the cake and the first piece was given to him. By the first taste he knew his mother had made it. More pieces were cut and everyone ate the delicious cake.

Everyone then came over to him and started handing out presents. Dumbledore had revoked the Quidditch ban and Harry had to spend a bit of time explaining to his father why he had been kicked off the Quidditch team in the first place. His teachers gave him the books he would need for their class that year, and Harry silently took that as a hint that he passed their classes. Though he didn't get anything from Snape. But it probably would have been poison anyway. Fred and George had given him some of their new tricks and treats. James had quickly looked them over with interest and showed them to Sirius and Remus as if he had seen nothing like it. He couldn't wait until Fred and George found out who it was praising their pranks. His friends told him they were going to give him their present later. They all had cake and wished Harry a happy birthday and spread about the hospital wing. Harry, thanks to Madam Pomfrey, was not allowed to leave his bed, which wasn't helping him think of open spaces.

The party ended later on that night and everyone was starting to leave wishing Harry happy birthday and such. The only people left were his parents and his friends. The marauders and Lily left the hospital wing so that they could hand out their presents. Ron and Hermione and Ginny got him some things for drawing. Ginny got him a whole set of drawing utensils. And the three of them said they wanted to stay to see his face when he got Sirius and Remus's presents. They both came in carrying a cage with a large sheet over it. Harry looked at Ron who just smiled at him.

"Now, we picked this one out, but we had to take your father because, he's slightly scared of them and we thought he should agree," Sirius said. The four others moved away from the bed so they could set the box down. Lily and James came in, James staying away from the box. "Ready?" Harry nodded. Sirius lifted off the sheet to show a small snake slithering around in the cage.

"Oh, you actually got me a snake?" Harry asked anxiously.

"Yeah. You've known yourself to be a parselmouth for, what was it? Four years. We thought you should have someone else who speaks the same language," Remus said.

"Think Madam Pomfrey would get angry if I let it out?" Harry asked, touching the lock on the cage.

"I think your dad might freak a little," Sirius said, smiling at his friend. Harry looked up at his father.

"No, you can let it out. Just don't let it go off the bed," James said.

Harry moved happily closer the cage and unlocked it. "Come come," Harry said, provoking the snake to come out of the cage. He heard everyone around him gasp. The snake looked up at him.

"_Filthy humans put me in a cage master_," the snake hissed.

"Master?"

"_First human to talk to me has to be. It's part of the code_."

"Oh, do you have a name?"

"_Prose, master_."

"Cool. I'm sorry they put you in a cage, my father is a bit scared of you." Harry turned to the others. "He says his name is Prose and he's very angry that you put him in a cage. Dad, if you're afraid of snakes, why did you pick out this one?"

"I didn't pick it out. Sirius and Remus did and I agreed. Why?"

"I don't know. I thought it kind of weird that you would agree to get a python. They grow to be like, eight feet long."

"…They do?" James asked after a pause.

"Yeah. They're quite dangerous and they wrap themselves around your neck and strangle you."

"I'm going to kill that salesman."

"James calm down," Lily said. "It'll be fine. Harry will keep his nice snake _Prose_ away from _you_ even when he's bigger. Won't you Harry?"

"Sure. Am I allowed to bring a snake to school?"

"I'm sure you are. It's just the fact that no ever has."

"Nagini is quite old. I'm sure Tom didn't leave her in the orphanage." Harry smiled and turned back to Prose.


	10. A Surprise!

10

A Surprise!

Harry was fast asleep in bed. Prose was curled up around his ankle and Nam was curled up on top of his head. Hedwig was in the owlery. He had a lot of pets now but he was okay with that.

Bonnie stepped into the hospital wing with food; having just come from the great hall where breakfast was being served for everyone else who was awake. She walked up to Harry's bed and quietly sat the tray beside his bed. She sat down on the edge with him and moved his hair, careful of Nam who crawled up onto the pillow for her. Harry looked so cute when he was sleeping and she wished she could admit it to his face. "Wakey wakey Kumquat," she said softly, brushing her fingers through his hair.

"No," Harry moaned in his sleep. "You go back to sleep," he grumbled, brushing his limp fingers against her waist; the first part of her he reached because of where she sat.

"No, no Kumquat. You must eat breakfast!" she said, happily, in a soft calming voice that made Harry want to keep sleeping so she would keep talking to him. "If you don't open those eyes I will open them for you," she smiled. Harry opened his eyes but he didn't look happy about it. "Ah, so you are awake."

Harry sighed and sat up with her. "If I'm not allowed to leave my bed I mine-as-well sleep all day," he said tiredly.

"Well you have to eat," she said, grabbing the tray and setting it on her lap. "I brought you up all the foods I know you would have chosen if you ate anything at all."

"Thanks," he said taking the tray from her.

"No problem." Harry took up a fork and began to pick at his food like he always did every-once-in-a-while taking a bite of it. "You know Harry; I learned everything about what you have been doing for the past five years. But you have yet to ask me of what I have been up to."

Harry laughed carefully. "Okay, what have you been up to?"

"Well, while father was working with the French," she began, stirring in beside Harry to begin her captivating story of her years in France with her mother and father. She told Harry all about how she spent her first summer alone without him in her tall French home with all her annoying French neighbors. She told him about how boring it was at Beauxbatons and how annoying all the girls there were. She fit in perfectly though, as she was tall and blond, but their sweet and cheery personalities made her need not fake an illness. She told him about her trips to India before her second year and how he would have loved it there. With the fresh smell of spices following you everywhere throughout the air. She told him all of how she so wished she was of age so she could go to Hogwarts to see him. Her fifth year she said was mainly boring till the end where she found out what had happened to him and found out she would be seeing him because her father was running for Minister.

"It would have been nice if they had let you come for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The gillyweed probably would have been your first thought being the potion master that you are," Harry smiled.

"Me to. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you."

"It wasn't you're fault. You weren't having any more fun than I was."

"I'm sure I was having a little bit more fun." When she noticed Harry wasn't eating anymore she took his tray away. "While you were going through strange tournaments I was watching our school make bets on who would win. I would have bet on you but I probably wouldn't have gotten my money back."

"Mmm," was all Harry said.

"…Did you take any pain potion today?" she asked.

"No, but I'm okay."

"You sure? I could get you some," she asked ready to leave to get some.

Harry took her arm keeping her on the bed. "I'm okay pet. Stay here okay?"

"Alright," she said, sliding back into her spot. A house elf popped in quietly to take away the tray.

"Hey Bonnie," Harry said slowly, trying to figure out how he would say it. He really wanted his birthday wish to come true. Bonnie turned to him. Harry just opened his mouth, gaping at her like a fish. Bonnie lifted her hand and closed it for him. "Never mind," he said turning away.

"No, what is it?" she said scooting down in his side and looking up at him.

"Have you…" he paused, not knowing if he should just not try. Or wondering if this was the right time. "Have you ever… thought about…" He remembered what Ron said. Maybe she did think the same way. "Have you ever… thought about… us, as anything more than friends?" he asked nervously.

Bonnie was silent for a moment. "Uh, I guess. What do you mean more than friends?" she asked slowly.

"Just never mind," he said quickly. Bonnie sighed and moved back into resting on Harry's shoulder.

It was silent for a long moment when neither of them knew what to say. "Oh, and I never got you a present," she said, moving away before Harry could stop her. She went over to another bed where her bag was sitting. Venus was sitting next to it talking to Nam who had run over after Harry woke up. She grabbed her bag and ran back over and sat down in front of Harry. "I don't know if you'll like it. I didn't really know what to get you. First," she pulled out a very big Tootsie Roll. "I know how much you like them and they are high in calories and you're just getting too skinny these days." Harry laughed and took the candy.

"Thank you."

"Well I'm sure you haven't eaten one in a while. And then we have…" She pulled out a muggle photograph. "At Victoria's school for Gifted and talented children. That was the day I pushed you into the mud." There in the muggle picture, taken by a teacher who obviously thought this funny, was a small little Harry, his glasses taped together in the middle, wearing black, hightop Converse that were now brown along with the rest of his front. Bonnie, with beautiful curls of almost white blond hair hanging down on her shoulders in the rain, stood in the rain, doubled over in laughter at him.

"You were such a sweet child," Harry said sarcastically.

"You weren't a Prince yourself," she said turning to the next picture. It was almost an opposite of the other. Harry stood, still muddy in the rain, behind Bonnie, in the process of pushing her over in the mud. In the next picture Bonnie's white skirt and blouse (that was the uniform) was covered in wet mud along with her perfect curls.

"You looked good in dirt. And you pushed me first," Harry defended.

"But I wasn't expecting you to push back. You were such a weakling."

"I was not. I was a piano wonder not a mini jock. And I can't believe you did that. You were the newbie. I owned that school." Bonnie turned to the next picture.

Bonnie stood, muddy in the rain at only seven years old beside a seven-year-old muddy Harry. He had his arm around her and mud in his other hand. Bonnie also had mud in her other hand. They both had huge smiles on their faces looking at the camera. "That was when we became the best of friends," Bonnie said happily. She changed pictures. Both of them in the photo had turned and shoved the fist full of mud into the others face, most getting into their mouth. "And that's when I hated you again. We had such a lovely relationship," she sighed. "I missed you so much when I had to leave."

"I missed you to."

Bonnie put the pictures away and sighed. "Okay, now don't laugh at me. I just thought… I always knew you liked the punk scene even before it was cool, with the Converse and different T-shirts. So..." She pulled out of her bag a very nicely styled leather jacket. Straight arms and body that had a very fashionable punk jacket. Harry took it to hold it up to look at it. "Do you like it?"

"Pet, I love it," Harry said. He set the jacket down and pulled her into a hug.

"Oh, are we interrupting something?" asked someone walking into the room. Harry and Bonnie pulled apart to see the other three walking in with Fred and George. Either Fred or George was the ones who had spoken.

"Hey guys. Uh, Bonnie was giving me a present. I got a Tootsie Roll, pictures, and a leather jacket," Harry said holding it up to them.

"Ooh, nice," Ginny said. "Did you try it on?"

"No." He slid it on carefully since it was harder when you were stiff with potions and sitting in bed.

"Very nice," Fred commented.

"Thanks."

"Did you say pictures?" Hermione asked. Bonnie quickly handed them to her before he could protest. The others gathered around to look as Bonnie did the commentary. "Aww Harry, you were so cute when you were little," Hermione said.

"And muddy," Harry added, opening his candy.

"Break your glasses a lot Harry?" George asked.

"I wore those glasses till I got contacts. I swear it was a wonder I could still see," Harry said. He took a bite out of his candy. "Uh, I haven't had one of these since I was nine. That's when they declared that I was overly hyper when given candy. I don't know where they got that idea. I am completely under control when given sugar. Sugar is good isn't it? I love sugar…" Harry kept talking very quickly as everyone slowly raised their heads. "What!" he asked to their confused faces.

"Now I remember why you don't get American candy."

"I love the Tootsie Roll. It's a lovely present."

Bonnie walked over and snatched it from his hand. "That's enough for you Mr. I love German Chocolate. ― "I do love German chocolate," Harry said. ― You can have one bite a day. A small bite." She closed the candy bar and put it in her purse.

"Evil teachers. They had to make that diagnosis. All it did was make me play the piano faster than usual and that's when they let me have it. Except on homework cause it could be known as cheating. But not just for the pleasure of eating candy cause then I'll go off the walls. Stupid piano teacher…"

"Yes, we hate the piano teacher," Bonnie said. "If you don't stop talking so quickly I'm going to give you a calming draught." Harry snapped his mouth shut. His fingers started to twitch on the blankets as if he was aching to play a piano. "Should ware off in a couple minutes."

"Then can I have some more?" Harry asked quickly.

"No."

"You're not my mother. You can't tell me what candy I can and can't have," Harry glared.

"Would you like me to go find both your parents and inform them of the situation?" she asked with a fake smile. Harry glared at her and shut his mouth. He pulled off the jacket and set in on his knees folding it.

"So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?" Hermione asked. "Harry still can't leave his bed."

"Actually he can," said a voice entering the room. They all turned to see James and Lily walking into the room. "Madam Pomfrey must have really loosened up. She never lets this many people in the hospital wing when I was younger."

"Actually, I have no idea where she went. She usually would have us all kicked out by now."

"Maybe she's finally found that no one can keep all of you out of the hospital wing," Harry said, his voice having finally toned down to a normal speed. "You all just keep coming. It's the populating line in China." They all looked to him questioningly. "What? Anyway, continue. About me getting out of bed."

"Right," James said. "We're getting you out of bed. Just for the day though and then you're going straight back."

"Shouldn't all the pain be gone by now?"

"Why are you still in pain? Where the hell is Madam Pomfrey?" he asked angrily, moving quickly out of the hospital wing.

"James, don't yell," Lily reprimanded. Harry sighed rolling his eyes and wincing at it but hiding it well. Lily turned back to her son. "Are you in pain?"

"I'm fine," Harry said.

"I asked if you were in pain?" she forced.

"Just a bit."

"You lied?" Bonnie asked.

"Just a little." Bonnie didn't look happy and went to sit down on the bed next to him.

"Sweetie," Lily said, moving around the room to the wall of potions. "If you're in pain. You will tell someone. If you are not in pain then you will tell someone. Only if it's not the 'I can take it' you. You got that from your father." She searched through the cabinets for something and grabbed a large red bottle.

"Mum, that's not pain relief potion," Harry told his mother.

"No, it's a whiskey for your godfather. Stupid dud." She grabbed another bottle and went over to Harry.

"What does Sirius need Whiskey for?" Harry asked as his mother poured the potion.

"I don't know. And after many years I have run out of reasons of why I should ask." She shoved the glass in his hand. "Drink this." Harry drank it quickly, afraid to make his mother angry. She took the glass back. "Thank you. Now when your father gets back you are going to get dressed and we are going to get you out of bed and take you somewhere." Harry nodded. His mother stood off the edge of his bed and went back over to the counter to grab the whiskey and set the glass back down. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She walked out of the room quickly.

"I wonder where Madam Pomfrey is," Ginny said.

Just then she walked into the room looking quite distressed. She turned to Harry. "If you ever turn out like your godfather, I'll submit you to the psyche ward of St. Mungos." She then turned away mumbling to herself about Sirius and his stupidity and how he just got out of jail.

"He hasn't even gotten the whiskey yet what could he have done?" Fred asked.

Harry was just shaking his head with a huge smile on his face. James and Sirius came running through the door and over to Harry to hide behind his bed. "Shh," James whispered to his son. Harry just sunk down into his sheets with a large smile. The others sat down with Bonnie to watch the events tie together. Lily walked into the room very calmly. "You don't have to hide. I'm not going to yell at you in front of my son. I also have not found Remus yet and I would like my yelling to be at all three of you instead of having to do it twice. It just works better for me. Plus I get to watch you suffer," she said happily. "You six. You're leaving now. We will see you all later." They all nodded and left the room. Bonnie stopped to hand Lily pictures before leaving. Lily sat down on the edge of Harry's bed. "Aww, sweetie. How old were you here?" she asked.

Harry looked over. "Oh, uh, seven. That's Bonnie and me at Victoria school for gifted and talented children. That was her first year. I had already been there for two years. We became friends after I shoved her in the mud."

"You shoved a girl in the mud Harry?" James asked as him and Sirius leaned over him to look.

"She shoved me first. The teachers thought it was funny."

"Nice school," Sirius said. "Why were you all out in the rain?"

"We had just been dropped off. That was the first day. We were all heading inside. Are we going now?" Harry asked, really hoping to get out of bed.

"Of course. Can you stand up on your own sweetie?" she asked.

"I'm fine mum. I just had a pain relief potion. I'll be just fine," Harry said. He scooted slowly to the edge of the bed pulling back the sheets. James handed Harry his shoes, which he quickly slipped on without having to tie them as they already were. He stood up only to sit back down. His mother was quickly there to help him in a second. "Mum, really I'm fine. Just a bit dizzy."

"Probably because you slept with you're contacts still in your eyes," Sirius pointed out.

"Right, see mum. It's my own fault," Harry said, thankful for the excuse. Though his vision wasn't blurry, he was just wobbly. Though his mother didn't seem to care whether it was a lie or not as she was still helping him stand. Though he hated it, he leaned on her slightly, feeling he might hit the floor if he didn't let her help.

"Oh, maybe this isn't a good idea," she said, letting Harry lean a shoulder on her. James quickly made his way over to them, seeing Lily's discomfort. Harry was a bit taller than she was and it was weird to try to hold him up.

"No," Harry protested, pushing his father away and standing on his own, straight, besides a few wobbles that he tried to pass off as shifts. "Please. I'm fine. I'll make it."

James nodded to Lily who sighed in defeat. She grabbed a book from her pocket and held it out. "We're taking a portkey as soon as Remus gets here."

"I'm here," Remus shouted, running in from the door. He sighed as he joined the others. "I'm here. Sorry, I got caught up."

"In the moment?" Sirius questioned, batting his eyelashes at Remus mockingly. Remus punched his arm. Harry was too busy trying to keep his balance so he didn't have the will power to try to understand what was going on. "Take the portkey Harry," Lily said gently to him. Harry only noticed someone putting an arm around him as he reached for the portkey with everyone else and then the tug behind his navel.

\-\-\-\-\-\

Harry would have landed flat on his face had it not been for the 'someone' holding him up. His dad had protectingly wrapped an arm around his son to keep him from falling.

While ignoring Remus pulling Sirius off the floor, Harry took in his surroundings. He had the distinct feeling he was in some type of castle. The ceilings were high as Harry could see and he had the thought of "The Interior of the Hoarlem Grotekerk".

"Welcome home Harry," James said from behind him.

Harry faintly remembered to breathe after hearing his father's words. He was in a house that he was to call his home. He was told to call it his home; by his own parents no less. He had never really had a home. Just a place to stay more like. The Dursleys just pretended he wasn't there and let him stay there, but it wasn't a home. Not to mention that this was hardly a house at all; it was more of a mansion or a castle. He faintly had thoughts of what his friends would think about it. Especially Ron. He already thought Harry had the gifted life being famous and all, now he was rich as well and had his parents to be with him. Somehow having them here made having to kill Voldemort sooner or later almost bearable.

"Our house reminds me of the 'Interior of the Hoarlem Grotekerk'," Harry said quietly still searching the high ceilings and slated floors.

"What is that?" Sirius asked.

"It's a painting. Not one of my favorites but a good study session," Harry said.

"Hmm, well Harry I'm sure you would like to see the rest of the house right?" James asked. Harry nodded and turned to follow everyone through the house. While they were walking out of the house Harry had a question he needed answered.

"If you don't mind me asking; this isn't Godric's Hollow… is it?" he asked.

"Oh no. It can't be rebuilt. Besides, that was just our summer home anyway. This is our real house."

"Have I ever been here before?" Harry asked.

"Of course you have. You came here all the time to visit with your grandparents. They both spoiled you rotten. Not that we didn't ourselves of course but no one could help it," James said.

"You were just so cute," Sirius said, pinching Harry's cheek. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Yes you were. With your mother's eyes and my good looks it was just so hard to not spoil you. Plus you were such a good baby. You didn't cry at all. All the other parents complaining about how much their children cried and cried and cried, we got to say, "oh Harry doesn't cry at all." Though we never did sleep soundly at night. Thinking of you when you would get older and we would have to explain about the prophecy. Your sweet little face so innocent and you didn't even know what was going on," Lily said, trying to hold back her tears.

"Oh, mum. I know about it now and I'm fine. You don't have to worry," Harry tried to comfort her, not wanting see his mother cry.

She had quickly turned around and pulled him into a tight hug he didn't think she could accomplish since she didn't look all that strong. Harry wrapped his arms around her as well to comfort her slightly. "Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry we weren't there for all those years while you went through those horrible experiences, that we still haven't heard about yet. I wish we could have been there to help you or take care of you or something. It must have been awful at my sisters. I'm sure she didn't take care of you at all."

"I was fine mum," Harry lied, but he didn't want her to worry more than she had to. "Really, there's no need to worry about it."

Lily pulled away and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry Harry. I was just so worried about you. You're sixteen and we know hardly anything about you. After we have a tour of the house you are seriously sitting down with us and telling us everything from when you were two to now. Got it?"

"I don't think I can remember back to … okay," he repeated. The last thing he wanted was for his parents to be upset with him.

"Good," Lily sighed. She kissed his forehead lightly before leading him out of the room. They then had a tour of the house.

First they had two libraries; one full of muggle books, one wizard; both Hermione would love. They also had a ballroom, which was very big and very nice, even a bit more that Bonnie's. A television room, two living rooms; one for family, one for social gatherings. They had an owlery in the back, third floor, and a Quidditch Pitch in the backyard. The second floor was a dining room and they didn't seem to have a kitchen. He was slightly disappointed, as he would miss his mother's cooking. It was also the floor of many guestrooms and Harry was sure that the entire order and his friends could move in. Third floor was the hospital wing that didn't have a healer at the moment. It also had a training wing that Harry wasn't allowed to go near without his parent's consent. Then there was his parent's rooms in another wing, as they both had their own as if it was the 1940's but Harry suspected one was never used. Then there was Harry's room at the very end of the hallway. "This used to be a nursery so we had to do some refurbishing. I just hope you like it."

"I'm really sure I will," Harry said truthfully. He was too excited about having his very own bedroom in his own house to care what it looked like. James smiled and opened the double doors letting Harry in. Harry was the first to walk in. It was beautiful.

The floor was a plain wood, the furniture a mahogany. There was a four poster bed at the end of the very large bedroom that had to be ten times the size of his old bedroom. It was laid with dark purple sheets and soft warm colours for his comforters, the pillows Egyptian black cotton. There was soft flowing black velvet curtains were flowing into a puddle on the floor. There was a huge stereo against the wall near a non-alcoholic bar. Harry's eyes widened at the sight of it. "You two have only known me for a week. How did you know to put a huge stereo in my room?" He sat down in front of it and found a stack of CD's sitting beside it. It was a fair good bunch of them. "The Doors, Panic! At The Disco, Twisted Sister, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Masterful! Thanks!" he said happily to his parents. "I had a Clap Your Hands CD but… Dudley broke it." Harry smiled at the memory. "It was an interesting day."

"Why what happened?" Sirius asked sitting on Harry's bed. Lily and James and Remus joined him watching Harry go through CD's and look over his stereo as he sat on the floor.

"Dudley had walked into my room to see if he could find me. He liked to bug me just to have fun. As it turns out it is not such a good idea to walk into my room uninvited. He walked in, and being the stupid being he is, decided to eat the candy in the small box on my desk. It had haplessly been filled with some of Fred and George's prank candies. So he ate one, turned into a bird, was so shocked as he turned to see himself in the mirror. He jumped back in surprise and hit my radio, which was falling apart as it was, and it started playing 'Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah'. It was right in the middle of the song and was skipping continuing to repeat the words "bloody life". He screamed like a girl and ran at the wall causing such a shake in the house my radio fell off my desk and hit the floor making the CD break. He fell to the floor as well and passed out still looking like a canary. It was very funny to watch all this from my doorway. Though Uncle Vernon's face was interesting. I got punished for it later even though I hadn't done anything. Apparently I hadn't done anything to stop him either and that was enough."

"How were you punished?" Sirius said.

"I was…" Harry stopped himself from saying the truth and continued. "Grounded. Regular punishment." Sirius nodded though he didn't think he believed Harry as much as he wished he did. It was the way Harry had paused that had caused him to catch the lie. "Thanks for the music."

"Of course. None of us really knew what kind of music you liked so we had to ask around a bit," Remus said.

"Who did you ask?" Harry asked. The only person who knew his type of music was Bonnie. Everyone else thought it was all kind of weird. All his favorites were mostly underground bands.

"Bonnie."

"Let's get off this subject," Sirius said. "Let's talk about your walls."

"What about them?" Harry asked, looking at the plainly white walls.

"Well we left them white because we knew you were… an artist. So we thought you might want to do them yourself."

"I can paint my walls?" Harry asked with wide-eyes. He looked over at his wall with excitement. He stood up and looked it over and touched it slowly. "I've always wanted to paint a wall. Like Da Vinci did with the Last Supper." He turned to the others. "And I can draw anything I want on it?" he asked with a slight smile.

"As long as it's appropriate. We'd rather you not have naked women on your wall or anything."

Harry just smiled and turned back to his wall and ran his hand over it.

"Well as much as we would love to let you stay here, you're supposed be back at the hospital wing before lunch," James announced.

"What?" Harry asked turning around so quickly he got dizzy and limped. Which didn't help the argument he was about to make. "How come? I'm fine. Can't I stay here?"

"We don't have a healer working in the house," James pointed out.

"But I'm fine. Anyone can take a pain relief potion. I don't need a healer. I just have to stay in bed right?" he asked walking over to them with a desperate stare. "Please. I won't even leave my bed, I swear." Harry climbed onto his new bed and sat at the pillows as everyone turned around on it. "Please. I spend half of my year at Hogwarts in the hospital wing. It's getting tiring to be there during the summer too. And if I'm here, we can talk and I'll tell you anything you want about what I did at Hogwarts. Please." What Harry wouldn't admit was that he didn't want to go back so he could spend time in his new house with his parents. He knew that if he went back to Hogwarts either Madam Pomfrey would kick them out or Dumbledore would ask for a meeting. He knew it was selfish and a bit childish, but for once he wanted them all to himself.

James looked at his son who pleaded with them to let him stay here. At times, Harry really could make himself sound like a lost little boy, most of the time without realizing or meaning to. He looked to Lily who was thinking the same thing he was.

They both sighed and looked at Harry. "Okay, you can stay here."

"Thank you," Harry said jumping at them both with hugs, which they both took thankfully. With Harry, you never knew when he would be angry with you next so you took the affection when it came.

"But you're talking, got it? From age two to now."

"I don't think I can remember― okay," he corrected himself. He didn't want them to change their mind. They both smiled. They continued to stare at him along with Remus and Sirius. "You want me to start now?" They all nodded with big smiles. They all nodded.

"Well…when I was two?" he paused trying to think back that far. It had taken a lot of to block his past out and now they wanted him to pull it back. "Nothing really happened when I was two."

"What do you mean nothing happened? Haven't you ever heard of the terrible twos?" Sirius asked.

"Well I wasn't allowed to be terrible. I was quiet. I didn't talk till I was four years old." They all paused at that.

"Why? They didn't teach you talk?" James asked.

"That, and the fact that I didn't want to talk to _them_. The Dursleys, as everyone should know, aren't the nicest of people. Who would want to talk to them?"

"Good point," Lily said. "Why did you start talking when you were four then?" she asked.

Harry paused. The first time he talked he had to convince a teacher that the bruises on his neck were from running into a pole. He didn't think he wanted to tell his parents that. "I was going to school. It's kind of hard to answer teachers when you don't talk."

The four could see he was lying but couldn't understand why he would lie about that. So they asked. James first. "So why did you talk to the teachers? They don't usually ask kids questions when they don't want to give an answer do they? Especially when you're four."

Harry looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Well… uh…"

"Harry, don't you dare lie to your parents," Lily commanded. "What did you have to say to your teacher?"

"She had asked about the bruises on my neck and I was trying to tell her I ran into a pole," Harry said quickly, looking down at his hands.

"Why were there bruises on your neck?" James asked.

"I don't think I should tell you," Harry said, refusing to look at him.

"Why not?"

"Because then you'll leave."

"Harry, I wouldn't leave you," he said hurriedly.

"No, I mean you'd leave the house," Harry corrected.

James looked at Sirius and then back at Harry. "I promise not to leave the house if you tell me."

Harry pulled his legs against his chest and set his chin on his knees. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Uncle Vernon was angry. He had slammed me against the kitchen cabinet. His finger marks were bruised on my neck for a week."

Everyone in the room but Harry stopped breathing. Lily took a breath and stood up slowly as if she wanted to sneak away to kill her sister. "Lily, sit down," James said forcefully. Lily stood there for a moment like she thought he might not notice her if she stood still long enough as no one had looked up yet. She went to make another move. "Sit, Lily." Lily sighed angrily and went to sit back down. "Harry, why did you not tell anyone about this before?" James asked.

"It's not a big deal―"

"Harry don't you dare say that! It's a very big deal!" James said angrily. "No one should have touched you. The day where it's okay to hit a child is never going to come, Harry. Where was Dumbledore during all of this?"

"I didn't know Dumbledore existed," Harry pointed out. "I didn't find out I was a wizard till Hagrid picked me up for Hogwarts."

James closed his eyes. "It wasn't supposed to happen this way," he said angrily. "If we wanted to put you at the Dursleys we wouldn't have banned the thought of it on the will." Harry flinched at the harsh tone of his voice. Sirius saw it and looked to calm James down as he had climbed off the bed and was now pacing the floor. Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and nodded slightly to a scared looking Harry. James sat down on the bed beside Harry. "Harry, how long ago did this stop?"

Harry looked nervous but thought he might as well get it over with while it was started. "Just last week. He was drunk and I passed out."

"Why didn't you defend yourself? You have a wand," Sirius asked.

"He had hid it from me. His fear of magic was over powered by his fear of me and he took it from me and hid it. I found it but I was scared of the Ministry. I was tired of being in the paper for using magic outside of school and I didn't want to give Snape another example of thinking I was better then other people. Plus having just gotten Sirius killed I wasn't the happiest of people. Guess it makes me seem weak doesn't it? To not think much of yourself and let yourself be beaten?" Harry asked, his voice down to a tone of disgust with himself.

"No Harry it does not make you seem weak," James said, putting his arm around Harry to hold him closer. "You just need to think more of yourself. You don't deserve what happened. You just made the wrong decision to "let yourself be beaten." And when you're fighting Voldemort the fact that you don't care much for yourself won't matter because you won't be like that then. Me and your mother will make sure of that."

"I'm sure something will screw it up," he said. Suddenly, he began to smile and he laughed lightly. Without a sound. Suddenly he started laughing harder. James moved away slightly to look at him curiously. Finally Harry calmed down. "I'm sorry. I just thought of something funny." They all waited for a better explanation. "Bonnie refuses to listen to me when I talk about death and stuff. She says I always see the glass half-empty. And that my faith in my religion contradicts how I talk about life. So she would make me sit with her and every time my tone hit dull or angry she would say, "Calm your tone Kumquat. Or you'll be stressed forever." I just thought it terribly funny."

"Who's Kumquat?" Remus asked, glad for the change of subject.

"Me. it's a nickname she gave me when we were little. We were at school doing a project. Ours included a kumquat and she thought it would be funny to shove it into my face. Didn't work. The teacher interrupted. So instead she blew up the science lab which wasn't a surprising thing when Bonnie was inside of it. Kumquat went everywhere. Mostly on me. The name stuck for two months with the rest of the school but Bonnie took it on as her own nickname to me."

"Aww, that's so cute," Lily said. Previous conversation not forgotten but put on hold to relieve the tension. "Was this at your _prodigy_ school?" she asked.

"Yeah. We really bonded then but she had moved into the neighborhood that summer. I was seven and so was she. I got there two years before her. One of my teachers noticed that I was excelling too quickly in all of my classes and then we took an art class and when they saw one of my drawings they sent it in and I was accepted. I wasn't like normal prodigies, as I didn't try to pretend I wasn't smart. I wasn't in any hurry to stay in that school with Dudley. So I went. It was pretty normal to me until Bonnie got there and threw me in the mud. I think you three would have been proud of what went on in that school though. The marauder genes were passed on to me. Bonnie and me got into much trouble while we were there. We played many well thought out pranks…" Harry continued to tell them about his years at Victoria's with Bonnie. All the pranks including the time he had stuck the principal's wig to the ceiling of the hall. He told them about the award for the note on the piano and a few awards he had gotten for his artwork. The four were happy that not all of Harry's days were spent being hurt. But the fact that he was hurt did not leave their minds. Harry seemed happy to talk about his days at Victoria's. About the pranks and the awards and the fact that he got to draw everyday was a rhapsodic fact to him.

Then he got to his first year. "In my first year at Hogwarts, after Hagrid picked me up, I got onto the platform 9 ¾ where I met the Weasleys. I didn't know how to get onto the platform so I asked them. So once I was on the platform Fred and George Weasley helped me load my things onto the train. When they found out who I was they seemed so shocked. No one had seen me in eleven years I guess it would be interesting for someone to come out of no where."

"Or to be the first to meet _the Harry Potter_!" Sirius pointed out.

"That too I guess. So I got onto the train and heard them all talking about me and Mrs. Weasley thought the twins were lying. So then I met Ron who was just as shocked at seeing me as the twins. Luckily he realized I wasn't strange and we became good friends…." Harry continued to talk about school and stopped at Quidditch. "Then Draco flew up with Neville's remember-all. And me being the hero couldn't control myself and I flew up as well."

"Harry! You didn't even know how to fly!" she said shocked.

"That's what Hermione said. But I'm me and I can't stop myself from it. So I flew up, not really caring that Malfoy had years of flying to keep him up on that broom but I had never flown in my life. So when Draco threw the remember-all at the castle, most of the crowd yelled at me when I went chasing after it as fast as the old broom would take me. So I caught the remember-all right as it was about to smash into the window. Where McGonnagal was sitting at her desk. So I went down and then McGonnagal came to get me. I thought I was going to be expelled. But that was the year I learned that I will never be expelled for anything I do in that school. Anyway she then searched for a boy named Wood and told him she had found him a seeker. Me."

"But you were only in first year!" James pointed out.

"Yeah, youngest seeker in a century. It was awesome." Harry continued his story ending with the Sorcerer's stone, everyone staring at him like he was Merlin. He then went onto his second year with the flying car where both Sirius and James praised him on a great entrance. But when he got to the part about finding out he was a parselmouth and how everyone thought he was evil and was avoiding him and talking behind his back they lost their envious stares. Even though it was four years ago and Harry was sitting in front of them alive, they felt nervous for him.

He told of Lockhart's memory charm, and how they got into the chamber. When he told them that Tom Riddle was Voldemort's memory they all gasped and said "that's twice now." Harry just continued and told about how he defeated the Basalisk and then how it stabbed him as he pulled the tooth out. They had all gasped and his mother moved closer to him. He finished with how he destroyed the diary and Voldemort along with it. Then it was time for third year when Harry met Sirius but thought he was a Grim. Sirius had to quickly explain why he had been in Azkaban and then calm James down. They hadn't gotten into that conversation yet. Then Harry continued with the Dementors and what they made him hear. His bad Quidditch game and his broken broom that he sat with for hours after it had shattered against the Whomping Willow. Sirius and James had looked upset too and Remus rolled his eyes but felt sorry for Harry. But then Sirius had given him the Firebolt and Harry had to thank Sirius for that again looking at it sitting in the corner of the room. Harry still remembered what Oliver had said when McGonnagal had taken it away from him to check for curses. (Even Remus gasped at that one. To have the best broom in the world taken away from you just because it didn't have a name wasn't really fair.)

"I told her that I don't care if it throws you off your broom as long as you catch the snitch first." Harry told about Trelawney predicting his death and the time turned. How they saved Sirius and he flew away on Buckbeak.

"Explains why there is a Hippogriff in Grimmuald Place," James pointed out.

Harry then turned to fourth year. The hardest year ever. His fight with Ron about the Tri-Wizard tournament and his jealousy. How he really didn't talk to anyway as they were all against him for entering and taking Cedric's thunder. Draco making the buttons that said 'Potter Sucks'. Then how he and Hermione were put in the paper as a couple after the first task. Then there was the dragon and the three men looked excited while his mother didn't look very happy. Then the Yule Ball. "Then there was the Yule Ball we had to go to. Me and Ron didn't have dates."

"How could you not have a date?" Sirius asked. "You're the boy-who-lived and a Tri-Wizard champion. It must have been easy."

"I was fourteen." The three looked at him like 'So?' "The girl I wanted to go with was a year older than me. I got asked plenty of times but I said no, stupidly enough. And when I finally got up the courage to ask her she was going with Cedric Diggory. Then it was too late and almost everybody had dates."

"Well you should have asked her sooner. Just throw something at her head to get her attention, and then say "hey you wanna go to the dance with me?" and then she'll say, "hell yeah!" Then it's over!"

"You can't throw things at Cho's head. She'll cry. And how was I supposed to know that? I never had problems with girls before! I was like Ron and didn't really notice them. I guess it's the fact that I had more important things to deal with."

"I wish I could have been there to help you with girl problems. You would have a girlfriend by now."

"I've had girlfriends before. In fifth year. We're getting off topic. We have to stay in order or nothing will make sense." He continued to tell them who he and Ron took to the Yule Ball and how angry Ron had been with Hermione and Krum. Then the problems with the Krum. The bad letters to Hermione, the newspaper saying he was insane and deluded. Then the second tournament. Then the third. The third was the worst as Harry went through everything that happened inside the maze and in the graveyard. Harry blocked everything from coming back into memory and just told the story.

When he was finished it was silent so Harry continued onto his fifth year. Sirius already knew most of what went on and so did Remus but Harry filled in his parents. The Occlumency lessons, the Defense teacher. Harry finally showed someone besides his friends the mark on the back of his hand. But when he went on with the story telling of the nightmares, the ban from Quidditch for beating up Malfoy, which made them slightly proud and slightly upset. Then the memory from Sirius and Harry's refined thoughts on his father that year. Though they had left when he talked with Sirius and Remus. James looked ashamed but was happy that the opinion Snape put in his son's head didn't stay. Then they went on to Dolores Umbridge getting rid of Dumbledore; Fred and George's escape, Dolores trying to cast the cruciatus curse on Harry, leading her to the cenetaurs. Then the collection of the Department members and heading to save Sirius from Voldemort. The battle. Then Sirius's death. Harry even told them about trying to cast a curse on Bellatrix but it didn't work. Sirius felt slightly ashamed that he had caused his godson to try to use an unforgivable. But slightly proud that he would try to get revenge. Then it was being possessed by Voldemort and Voldemort asking Dumbledore to kill him. Then the telling of the prophecy and the Harry's temper tantrum in the office.

"Then I sort of walked around in a daze for the rest of the year. The whole time I was trying to think of a point to staying there. I had, yet again, like every year, gotten a letter to a prestigious school. You don't even send in an application. You can't find them. They find you. And I thought that maybe I should forget I was a wizard completely. Kill Voldemort and then go to school in Germany with Bonnie. I was saving up some of my own money to get me there. So I got a job at the tattoo parlor, I hung out with my friends who ended up going to St. Brutis's when they got older, who I used to know when their bigger bad boy history was hijacking a car when they couldn't look over the steering wheel. They used to make fun of Bonnie and me cause we were the dorks but we were friends all the same. Fish, Tim, Tom and Toilet: they taught me how to hotwire a car one summer when I was six years old. But they also taught me the best lines to use against your parents to confuse them when you get home too late or for once want to know about your personal life. They taught me how to drink and… about girls. I had a lot of girlfriends over the summer. Fish and the guys thought I needed to get out of my dull stage that the wizarding world had put me in. Fish is a muggleborn and knows exactly who I am but never went to a wizard school. His sister went to Hogwarts for one year then dropped out and everyone else is a muggleborn same as Fish. When I came home each summer they tried to turn me into an incurably criminal boy like themselves. Not the one who would help the little old ladies bring in their groceries. Painting a good picture? So they thought they should introduce me to the real world. So we went to bars and stuff and I got a few girlfriends. Some who are still calling. Though strangely enough on Privet Drive and Mongolia Cresent I'm still known as the town's perfect little boy who lives with nasty people."

"Did you really carry in their groceries?" Remus asked. Looking Harry over you really couldn't imagine him doing that.

"Yeah. They all loved the little boy who once tried to walk into moving traffic to be with the angels," he said with a large smile. "That was when aunt Petunia was nice. I was three and I asked where the both of you were. She said God had taken them away to live in heaven with angels. So I said that I wanted to be with the angels too."

"So you walked in front of a bunch of driving cars?" Sirius asked.

"I was three. I wanted to be with my parents. Though a few years later I was told you died in a car crash cause you were both drunk but I didn't believe that about you so you don't have to worry."

"You're not jumping in front of cars anytime soon right?" James asked.

"Not that I know of, no."

"Good."

"So I told my whole story―"

"What happened at the bar with these girls?" Sirius asked quickly remembering.

"Why do you need to know?" Harry asked, a devious glint in his eyes.

"Just want to make sure you didn't do anything stupid," James agreed.

"I didn't do anything stupid. I wouldn't do that."

"Mhmm, so there was just snogging, no shagging, no drugs, _no drinking_!"

"Everything but the first and last one," Harry said, innocently smiling.

"So there was drinking?" Remus asked.

"Of what kind?" Sirius asked. Harry gave a look at his mother nervous about what she would think.

Sirius repeated his question. "Drinking of what kind?"

"Shots, whiskey, beer, straight vodka."

"So you haven't done any drugs, you may have a drinking problem, you're not having sex, waiting for the right person are we?" James asked raising his eyebrows.

"I don't believe in premarital sex," Harry stated.

"Wellll good. But is there any girl you're actually hoping to have an actual relationship with?" James asked.

"_N_o" Harry lied well.

"Fine. But your mother and I have to go talk to Dumbledore. Remember to take your pain potion in an hour," James said standing up.

"But aren't you going to stay here?" Harry asked as James stood up.

"No, sorry buddy. We have a meeting. Me and your mother still have to convince the Ministry that we're alive and Sirius is innocent." He went to Harry and gave him a hug. "I'll see you later, alright?" James asked, keeping his hand on Harry's neck as he waited for an answer. Harry nodded silently, not really wanting him to leave. James smiled and ruffled Harry's hair. "I'll see you later." Lily kissed his forehead and followed James. They headed out of the room and Harry sighed back into his bed. When James left the room Sirius and Remus looked to a disgruntled Harry.

"Don't worry kiddo. They'll both be back later," Sirius said. He and Remus stood. "Why don't you get some sleep okay? Remus and I are going to search the house to see if the house elves are still working here and see if they'll make us some lunch." He ruffled Harry's hair and they both left as well. Harry sighed into his bed and sunk under his covers. He really did want his parents all to his own for one day. Couldn't they wait for a little bit more before they left? He didn't even care if they talked. He just wanted to be with them. It was too bad he couldn't leave his bed. He turned in his bed and sunk into his cozy velvet sheets and hugged his big black cotton pillow and quietly fell asleep.

\-\-\-\-\-\

Harry woke a little while later to the feel of someone playing with his hair. It was the only soothing thing at the moment. His body hurt all over. He opened his eyes and looked up into the beautiful eyes of Bonnie. He smiled at her.

"Hello sleepy head," she smiled. "Sleep well?"

Harry groaned. "I need my potion."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hold on," she said quickly. She moved just slightly without moving him and grabbed a potion from the bedside table. She then leaned back over him and handed it to him. Harry quickly downed it and closed his eyes, relaxing at Bonnie's fingers against his hairline as the potion began to take effect. He took a deep breath, inadvertently taking in Bonnie's scent of fresh roses. Everything about her was soothing to him; from the way she played with his hair to the scent of roses that traveled everywhere with her. He kept his eyes closed, waiting for the potion to take effect.

"Feeling better yet?" Bonnie asked, still playing with his hair. Harry moaned though Bonnie didn't know if that was a yes or a no.

"Happy birthday," Harry said groggily, once a bit of the pain in his body had edged away. Becoming greater than Merlin was like doing 5o, ooo pushups in one minute without breathing. In other words, it hurt like hell.

Bonnie smiled again and Harry opened his eyes to see it. "Thank you. My parents don't even remember my birthday."

"I celebrated it for five years. You remembered mine. Not that I did." He smiled and she joined him. Harry sat up wincing in a bit of pain.

"Harry you shouldn't sit up if it hurts," Bonnie warned quickly.

"I'll be fine in a few minutes. I got you a present," he smiled. This time he got to lean over her and opened the drawer to the side table to get something. While he was so close Bonnie breathed in a trace of the scent on him. He smelt like soap, as though he had just gotten out of the shower, and a hint of good cologne. He then leaned back into the bed next to her. Bonnie got into a comfier position against the pillows to face him. Harry was holding the present behind his back so he could explain it first. "I must ask first because otherwise you might not understand the present." Bonnie nodded her understanding. "Do you remember, in school, in one of our codes classes, everyone had to partner up and create a special language. We got to spend a month on it in class. Since we spent all of our time together, and got to use it and practice it more, ours was the most perfected and most ready language. We got an 'A' on that assignment, remember? We had to teach it to the class but none of them seemed to understand it enough to use the language fluently. Only we could speak it, write it, and read it. So it was always our special language that we used when planning pranks in the middle of class so the teachers wouldn't know. You remember that language right?" he asked. Bonnie nodded anxiously, now feeling the squirrels jumping on her stomach. "Well I know your favorite book is "Gone With the Wind" and I know that you have a hard copy of it in every language, but you were missing a main language in your collection. So I had this book specially made for you." He handed her the book from behind his back. Bonnie gently took the book as if it were glass and fingered, with shaky hands, the title engraved in the cover. Γονε Ωιτη Τηε Ωινδ. There was a rose, holding as a bookmark, behind the cover that was a deep red, almost black.

She looked back up at Harry. "Oh Harry this is too much. You didn't have to do this," she said, coming close to tears at the sincerity and uniqueness of the gift.

"I know for a fact that your parents won't be coming home today. I thought you deserved to have something extra special for your sweet sixteen. Especially since I can't get out of bed to throw you a party."

"Oh, Harry it's the best present ever," she said happily, pulling him into a tight hug. Harry was glad the pain potion had finally come into play cause he wasn't going to push her away. He wrapped his arms around her, his hands settling at her waist. Both holding on for longer then was necessary but needing the contact they wouldn't get in other ways. Neither was about to ruin the friendship. Bonnie pulled away after a few minutes and slumped down in the pillows by Harry's shoulder. She looked over her book as Harry rested his head on hers. "Can you still speak it, read it?" Harry asked.

"Of course!" she said, opening the book. She pulled out the rose and breathed in the fragrance. She turned back to him while closing the book. "You know your godfather said there were some pretty good movies in the TV room. Wanna go check them out?"

"How would Sirius know? He's never watched a muggle movie in his life! Plus I'm not allowed to leave my bed," Harry said.

"You got out of bed to take a shower."

"Yeah, well, it was needed."

"And Sirius never actually said he watched them. He more said they looked interesting. Now come on!" she said moving off the bed.

Harry sighed and moved off the bed to the edge. "This bed is so much comfier than anywhere else. Even Hogwarts," Harry said, sitting at the end of the bed.

He stood up and grabbed onto the post feeling dizzy again. Bonnie was by his side in a second to grab onto his arm. "I'm okay. I don't know why gaining power should keep me from walking?"

"It's probably either the potion or the fact that an overdose of power is spreading through your tiny, underfed body," Bonnie said blatantly. Harry stopped and slanted his eyes giving her a questioning glare. She just smiled and continued to help him stand straight and they walked barefoot from his room. (Bonnie had left her shoes there.) They walked out of the room. They stopped. Bonnie turned to Harry. "How well do you know your house so far?"

"Not that well."

"Let's look for the TV room."

"I think it's on the first floor."

"Think you'll make it down three― two flights of stairs?"

"Of course I will," Harry insisted stubbornly. He moved before she did and headed down the corridor. They made it down corridors and halls and two flights of stairs, more halls and more passages before they stopped at a room. It had a black door in a lit passage near, what Harry remembered was supposed to be the kitchen. Probably why Sirius pointed out the TV room to Bonnie since it was near the kitchens. Though he probably had hoped she would tell him they were coming down first before Harry, in his "weak state," headed down three flights of stairs.

Bonnie opened the door and they both walked in. The room was dark, good for movies. There was a very large plasma television on the wall across the room, a large cozy sofa near by on a slope floor so that the couch was straight with the screen. There was movie mood lighting on the ceiling. Bonnie and Harry went over to the couch and sat down on the ever so comfy couch. Bonnie slid off the couch onto the floor and jumped off the very high platform that was four feet up. Under the large screen, that was almost the size of a theater screen, was a short cabinet that held the movies. She opened it to show a never-ending amount of films. "So what do you want to watch?"

"Do they have your favorite movie?" Harry asked, resting his head on the armrest. Bonnie looked back at the movies placed in alphabetical order and grabbed one quickly. She stood up and walked up a set of steps near the wall. There was a VCR and DVD player inside a dug out box in the wall. She put in the DVD and pressed play before joining Harry in the couch. Even just as friends, Bonnie sat into the couch on Harry's lap and leaned against his chest. Harry wrapped his arms around her and they both cuddled up comfortably on the couch and watched Donnie Darko.

When the movie was over they had both fallen asleep out of comfort. Bonnie was still lying in Harry's arms as he held tightly onto her. Bonnie had her head buried in Harry's soft T-shirt clinging lightly to the soft fabric. Harry had both his arms lying around her waist. Their feet were tangled together at the end of the couch.

Sirius opened the door with Remus behind him. "Har―" He stopped at the sight of them on the couch. Him and Remus looked at each other quizzically before walking over to them behind the couch. They looked down on the two who looked oddly cozy in their position on the couch. Sirius and Remus just realized how close the two were. A little more than friends to each other. They both smiled. Sirius ruffled Harry's hair lightly so he wouldn't wake, before they both left after turning off the movie.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\

Harry was sent back to bed later that day and Bonnie was sent home. Apparently the house elves were working at the house and Sirius and Remus had dinner with Harry and his parents instead of going back to Grimmuald Place. Then Harry was sent straight back to bed. Harry climbed into bed with a great sigh and under the covers, already changed into pajama pants and a T-shirt. He lay down and his parents sat down on the side of his bed.

"Need to take a potion before you go to sleep?" his mother asked, thoughtfully moving his bangs out of his face.

"No, I'm fine," Harry answered.

"Okay. Well we'll see you in the morning and maybe Ron and Hermione will come over tomorrow."

Harry nodded. "Are you two going anywhere tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we have to go talk to Fudge about being alive. And after that we have to tell him about Sirius, so Sirius won't be here tomorrow either and Remus is coming as a witness. Tonks is coming over to watch you tomorrow and maybe Mrs. Weasley I think."

"So neither of you will be here at all tomorrow?" Harry asked.

"You know it was not even a week ago you didn't want to spend time with us at all," James joked. Harry didn't smile. It was exactly this, the fact that he would lose his parents if he got them that made him want to not know them. Now that he had gone through with it he wanted them all to himself. As much as he did want Sirius freed he didn't want the world to have them back yet. "We should be back by dinner, I promise," James said, moving closer to him and pulling him into a hug, noticing his son's rejected feeling about their leave. He pulled away and pushed Harry's hair off his forehead. "And then when we're finished with the Ministry we'll spend the whole day together okay?" Harry nodded slightly. "Okay. We're going to be here for you okay? We just have to get a few things out of the way first." Harry nodded again, feeling like his excuse was more than a bit selfish. James kissed his forehead and climbed off the bed. Lily hugged him goodnight and kissed his cheek before they both left the room saying goodnight. When the door was closed Harry grabbed his wand that he had snuck out of his father's pocket while he was so close. He was taking it all in but he knew he should take his wand while he had the chance.

His wand had been taken away as soon as he was passed out in the hospital wing because they didn't know what he would be able to do with it or believed that he might hurt himself by using magic. Harry didn't believe that. He pointed his wand at his door and before he even said the spell he knew the silencing spell was already done. No light had come from the wand or anything. He could sense the magic though. He pointed it at the radio and turned it on to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! He then turned over in bed and fell asleep to the sounds of the band, wishing to wake up in the morning and be eleven years old again with parents who never died and to not be the boy-who-lived.


	11. My Title Wouldn't Fit in This Space

11

I'm a Child Star, and a Hypocrite and Voldemort Wants My Head Again. Yay!

Harry silently woke up to the quiet buzzing of his radio. He looked up and knew the other reason he woke up. His father was sitting next to him on his bed looking down at him with a not so happy stare. He held out his hand.

"Give the wand back Harry," he said calmly, but forcefully.

"I won't use it!" Harry said, determined to keep his wand now that he had it back.

"Harry we don't want you to hurt yourself. We don't know what your powers will do with a wand and they're not even fully developed yet. Now hand it over." Harry grabbed it from behind his pillow and slapped it grudgingly into his father's hand. James winced at the slight shock that went through his hand but took the wand and stuck it in his pocket. "You shouldn't be so worried about not having a wand. You could probably do wandless magic if you tried― which you won't!"

"I won't try to use my wand. It's more like a security blanket," Harry claimed.

"You still can't have it back yet," James said to state the obvious. Harry nodded. James moved Harry's hair back, kissed his forehead and stood up again. "We'll all be back for dinner alright?" Harry nodded and waited for him to leave.

When he was gone Harry climbed out of bed and went to his lovely bathroom. Perfectly white tiled floors, tub/ Jacuzzi, shower and a stem sink. It was a lovely bathroom. He showered, brushed his teeth, didn't bother with his hair and just styled it pointlessly giving his messed up hair a small curl between his messy bangs. He put on some thin eyeliner deciding to go back to the regular routine. He then went back into his room and took his pain relief potion before the pain came into place. He changed his outfit and headed out of his room. He went down the hall to the owlery to visit Hedwig but she wasn't there but while he was leaving he did notice Prose slithering around outside the door. Harry said good morning and Prose followed him downstairs to the first floor.

He ran into Tonks on his way to the Library's wing. "Harry what are you doing out of bed?" she asked accusingly.

"You were all the way down here. I can't spend all my time in my room."

"You can if I put you there," she said about to move him upstairs.

"Tonks," he said sadly, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. "I just wanted to use the library."

"Your father warned me. Snuck your wand and now you're going to look up wandless magic," she said, ushering him out of the hall.

"I was not! I was going to look up info on Merlin."

"I'll bring them up to your room," Tonks said.

"You don't know which ones I want."

"I will bring them all up to your room. No one is using the library right now, I'm sure no one will mind if you steal all the volumes on Merlin."

She opened his door and shoved him inside and waited for him to get back in bed. Harry saw his wall. "Actually, never mind about the books. Do you think you could get me some black paint?"

She eyed him questioningly. "Are you going to paint your walls black?"

"No. Can you?"

Tonks rolled her eyes and left. Harry moved over to his trunk and dumped out all his art supplies. There were two drawing needles, charcoal. Pastels and colored pencils that he didn't use for anything besides homework. Fourteen or fifteen different sketchbooks. He spread them out. He opened to his first page. On each page on the bottom right corner was his inscription.

**Himself**

"That your artwork?" Tonks asked, walking into the room. Harry quickly closed the book and looked up.

"Maybe."

"Defensive of our artwork, aren't we?" Harry looked away and shoved his sketchbooks away. His cell phone rang. He grabbed it from his back pocket turning away from Tonks as he stood. Tonks unintentionally caught sight of his arse. She tilted her head a bit but quickly looked away. She was only twenty but he was still younger than her and was her cousin's godson. It wasn't right to look at your job's arse. She could listen to his phone conversation though.

"Hi Alicia. Sorry I didn't call to apologize. I would have made it to our date but I had some family issues… yeah… no, no need to come over I'm okay. How was the wedding? …I'm sorry. That pig. I'll come by soon and beat him up for you okay? …Tell him the bartender says he's coming to get him… okay. Well I have to call some people but I'll call you later okay? … Alright, bye." He flipped his phone closed and walked back to see Tonks staring at him. "What?" he asked, slipping his phone back in his pocket.

"Girlfriend?" she asked.

"Maybe."

"Are you afraid to talk to me Harry?" she asked as Harry sat back down on the floor beside the paint can.

"Why would I be… afraid to talk to you Tonks?" he asked, straining to open the paint can with his fingers. He popped it open and laid the top on the floor. He stared at his paint for a second and Tonks sat down beside him.

"I don't know. Why would you be? But you seem to be. Don't you?" Harry didn't seem to be paying attention. He was looking over the floor with searching eyes as if looking for something. He touched the floor gently beside him and a tarp began to grow out from the floor spreading over it from under them.

"There," he said, standing up again.

"Harry! You aren't to do wandless magic!" she yelped.

"I can't help it. Dad already took my wand away and it's making me go insane. Leave me alone alright?" He stood up and headed over to his wall.

"You aren't going to paint your entire wall black are you?" she asked.

"Do you think I would?" Harry asked, setting up paintbrushes from his trunk. There were all different sizes and shapes.

"So you really do love art," she said more of a statement than a question.

Harry turned to her. "Yeah, I really do." He turned to his things but continued to talk. "If I had grown up with Sirius or someone I probably would have grown up to know about the prophecy. Grown to be a warrior. Learn to fight and everything. But since I grew up in the muggle world I got to express myself how I wanted to. Just happened to be art. And the piano. Love the piano too."

"Are you good? At painting and stuff. I heard you went to a prodigy school and stuff but I'm not really sure who Da Vinci was."

"You've never heard of Da Vinci?" Harry asked shocked. "Years of being compared to him have made me do some research. The man was not only a great artist, but also a genius inventor. He made more interesting things than we have today. He thought up inventions that were so beyond his time. But his art. It was always about angels or Jesus with his mother Mary. He is most famous for his work of The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. Both have been known to have secrets behind them. Like Madonna on the Rocks. I love all Da Vinci paintings. He's my idol. All his work is so hypnotizing. Mona Lisa's eyes, when you look at them they follow you wherever you move. The people or angels in the paintings seem like they're moving they seem so real. He painted so differently than other people, he didn't draw lines first. It's why his paintings seem so life like. You wanna see one?" He moved over to his trunk. He seemed so excited to get to talk to someone about Da Vinci. Like a little kid on Christmas. He wouldn't show his own work but he could show the work he had idolized. He grabbed a large book from his trunk and pulled it over to her. He showed her his favorite painting, Madonna of the Rocks and told her about the original masterpiece in the painting and the small secrets most didn't know of.

"Tonks!" someone called from downstairs. Tonks jumped from her seat on the floor.

"Oh, that must be Mrs. Weasley. I'll be back. Maybe. It was lovely talking to you Harry. We must do it again some time," she said. Harry was glad she sounded like she really meant it. She hopped off the floor and ran from the room to make it back to Mrs. Weasley. Harry touched the paint with his finger and rubbed it between his fingers.

He crawled off the floor and went to his wall. He dipped a paintbrush in the paint that quickly changed to a light gold. Fifteen minutes later the door opened. Harry didn't look away from his wall. He knew it was Bonnie. She was always quiet when he was painting. He heard his bed move and knew she was lying down to watch him.

Bonnie crawled softly onto Harry's bed as he was painting. As a child she always loved to watch him paint. He didn't like to be disturbed but she didn't mind. She was quiet. When Harry painted. There wasn't any noise. It was quiet. His brush strokes were gentle.

Bonnie pulled her feet up onto the bed, setting her shoes on the floor, and pulled the pillow close to her. Snuggling herself into the pillow messing her perfect blond curls.

They both continued what they were doing for about an hour. Harry finished a small square of his wall, but it was perfect anyway. A small angel floating in the middle of nowhere for now. Perfect skin, perfect golden curls, and a golden halo just as Da Vinci had portrayed them.

Harry put the tarp up in front of it so you wouldn't see his unfinished work. He stamped his foot on the floor and all the tarps were gone. He turned around and crawled onto the bed to face her. They both smiled. "Hi," Harry said.

"Hi. What is the painting going to be?" she asked scooting closer to him.

"I don't know. Haven't decided yet. Haven't done big paintings like this since my art exhibit in New York. That was fun. I think that painting is still in the museum."

"I think so too. Oh and I brought some of your things. I highly doubt your parents will want to burn all of your awards and papers. Fish still has your guitar though," she said, giggling with a smirk.

"Hey, I was not that bad, I had to learn how to play it. They wanted to see if it was just the piano or if I could play other instruments."

"They were wrong," Bonnie laughed.

"Hey," Harry said jokingly shoving her arm. "I could play the violin, the _oboe_, the flute, though it wasn't my favorite of them all."

"Yes the _oboe_ was a very sexy instrument," she laughed again. She rolled on her back giggling at the memory of the professors persuading Harry to play it. It had such a funny name and her and Harry had strange minds and ended up laughing uncontrollably the entire time.

"You think that's funny?" Harry asked starting to tickle her sides. She started to laugh harder and tried to squirm away. Harry moved over on top of her to stop her from getting away.

"Harry, stop!" Bonnie giggled.

"You give?" Harry asked, continuing to tickle her.

"I give!" she laughed. Harry stopped and watched as Bonnie settled down from her giggle fit. He was still leaning over her, his hands on her waist. Their faces were closer and Harry knew he should move away. He could smell her; the scent of roses was everywhere. Bonnie sighed, looking up at his eyes. She was waiting, for what she wasn't sure but she knew she was waiting for Harry to do something. He looked down at her eyes. "I should take my medicine," he said quickly. Bonnie looked disappointed. That wasn't the something she was waiting for him to do. She nodded. Harry climbed off of her and moved over to his side table.

Bonnie sighed and pushed herself off the pillows to sit.

Harry downed a vile of his pain relief potion. He then picked up his cell phone from his pocket and opened it.

"Who are you calling?" Bonnie asked, leaning over the edge of the bed while Harry sat against it on the floor.

"My Boss. I haven't called in to tell him I wouldn't be coming to work for three days now. He's gotta be pissed." He pressed Boss in his phone book.

"Hey Boss, I just―… no, Boss it's not that it's just―" Harry sighed and listened to his Boss yell.

The door opened and Tonks and Mrs. Weasley walked in. "Harry do you want to come down for lunch―" Harry shushed them holding up a finger.

"Boss, come on. I was having family problems… no I cannot explain them to you… because they're complicated―… Boss no!" he said standing up. He headed to the bathroom. "Boss please calm down it's not like that." He closed the door to the bathroom but you could hear him yelling behind the door. "No! Please don't call them… No I don't have a black eye… I'm not even living with them anymore… I'm living with my godfather… no he's not dead. He was in the witness protection program… look it's none of your business what happens in my family… I don't care if it's weird… I am _not _gay… You call social services they're going to ask if you're insane or not. You have no proof of anything. They'll just deny it… fine! Fire me then. I don't need a job anymore anyway. It's your loss… yeah fine. Take away my paycheck. I don't want your filthy paycheck… yeah you hang up now. You'll pay for it later." Harry slammed open the door to his bathroom. "Stupid man. Actually wanted to call social services. I don't want lunch but thanks anyway," Harry said calmly, slumping down on the floor on the other side of his bed where they couldn't see him. They saw the cell phone go crashing against the wall. Harry lay down on his side on the floor.

"Harry, your father said you should eat," Tonks said.

"Well I'll eat when he can say that to my face," Harry said coldly, neither angry with Tonks or his father.

Bonnie just nodded for them to leave signaling that she would take care of it. They both left the room and Bonnie leaned over the bed to see Harry.

"Kumquat? Are you alright?" she asked gently.

"I really liked my job, pet," he said sadly.

"I know you did Kumquat. Why don't you come lie up here? Come on," she said sweetly. Harry stood and crawled onto the bed and placed his head in her lap letting her begin playing with his hair.

"I really liked my job," Harry repeated sadly.

"I know you did. But you know you can still paint, draw, nothing is stopping you."

"But it gave me so many advantages. I got to know so many people. I got to talk to them, know their problems and try to help them or make them feel better. It was a way for me to talk to… my people."

"You take this Saint Jimmy thing way to seriously Harry."

"I don't take it that seriously. I will have to kill Voldemort, and that affects muggles too. He's going to kill them all. I would like to know the people I plan to save. All these people have lives to fulfill and problems to solve, they have no reason to die."

"There are other ways to know "your people" Harry. You still have your name. Maybe he'll call you back and offer you your job back. You know he needs you." She took out her wand and flicked it at his phone, putting the pieces back together.

"Maybe… wanna go downstairs and watch CNN, maybe see what's going on in Ireland," Harry asked. Bonnie smiled. Harry sat up and they both left the room after Harry picked up his cell phone.

\-\-\-\-\

"Well then we are going to go now," Tonks said. "We'll see you tomorrow at the Order meeting. We think Bonnie is still here. Harry and her have locked themselves in the TV room."

"Have you checked on them lately?" James asked.

"Nope," Tonks smiled. "Have fun." She and Mrs. Weasley left the house.

"I'll go check on Harry and his "friend". Someone get the house elves started on dinner." He walked away and headed to the TV room. He opened the door quietly to catch Harry and Bonnie sitting side by side on the couch watching four channels at once. They were both laughing hysterically at the television, even though, as James could see, they were watching CNN and other news channels.

"How much plastic surgery do you think she had to get this job?" Harry asked.

"Two breast implants and a nose job. Did you know they're not allowed to get botox? It causes you to smile and unless you're talking about sunflowers you can get fired for that. The news is so depressing."

"Not when you're on it. I heard some of the anchors in Britain actually take their clothes off while giving the news so that more people will watch. I don't think that's depressing."

"No that's disgusting. And here I thought you had a little bit of class."

"I don't watch it. I just heard. Though I hear that Fish enjoys that channel very much. He says he's going to marry Ms. Lego. Though he says they always change the channel to some ugly half naked guy when she had gotten down to her bra."

"He always was a little strange when I asked him to watch the news with me."

James knocked on the side of the door. They both looked over the back of the couch. "Oh hi dad," Harry said happily. "How did the meeting go?"

"Fine. Sirius is freed, Peter is on search, and the point of your mother and me being alive is going in the paper tomorrow."

"That's great."

"Yeah, uh, Bonnie should probably be getting home soon; dinner will be in a little bit."

"Okay," Harry said, waiting for him to leave. James turned and left listening outside the door for a second.

"Your dad is really nice Harry," Bonnie said quietly, but James heard the conversation.

"Yeah, both my parents are. You know I'm really happy that they were able to free Sirius and everything. Sirius deserves that, to be free. But now by tomorrow everyone will know that my parents are alive again and they won't be mine anymore. Just because they're the first people to come back to life and then they're my parents. The press are going to go nuts. I won't have them to myself. Which was my fear in the first place. That I would get them, and then they would just go away."

"Harry, they're not going to just go away now that they're here," Bonnie reassured.

"Yes they are. I got them for, what? Almost a few hours just to tell them what had been going on and then whoosh. Off to talk with Dumbledore, the ministry, there's an order meeting tomorrow."

"But you said they said they would be there the entire day."

"I'm sixteen I shouldn't care what my parents do with their time, should I?"

"Harry, nobodies parents have ever come back to life before, and you were only one when they died. Wanting to keep them to yourself and spend time with them could be perfectly normal. Just like how they seem to tuck you in at night and you don't even notice the fact that sixteen year old boys don't usually get tucked in by there parents."

"Thanks pet," Harry said. James knew the conversation had ended and went back to the others.

\-\-\-\-\-\

"You were eavesdropping on your son?" Lily asked when he was finished.

"My father used to eavesdrop on me and I'll do the same to my son. But he doesn't like the fact that we're going to be in the eye of the public with him. Not because he wants the fame to himself but because he wants to act like a five year old who wants to be with his parents all the time and never let go of his father's leg instead of the sixteen year old that he is who tells his parents to leave him alone and begs for rock concert tickets."

"You never begged for rock concert tickets James. And Harry wouldn't either," Sirius pointed out.

"Well he would beg to go if he had tickets. I know about Harry and the money issue. But I don't know what to do. From the way he was acting before he didn't want to know us at all, though I learned the reason was because he would lose us, and now he wants to keep us all to himself without any intrusions from the Ministry or the public."

"I say you skip the meeting tomorrow and spend time with Harry."

"What are we supposed to talk to him about?" They all stayed silent. None of them knew what exactly they would talk to Harry about. Not one of them was there, and knew him long enough to have a normal conversation. He had told them everything that happened but they knew no specifics of his life. Not even Ron and Hermione had known that he had went to a special school with Bonnie.

"Let him talk. Try asking a lot of questions," said a voice behind them. It was Bonnie. Harry wasn't there. "Harry's changing for dinner. He's not really hard to talk to you know," she said, sitting down next to Sirius across from James. "He and I used to not talk at all. Or at least he didn't. He used to talk with his eyes. Made the teachers angry as hell― or heck. But yeah, he's not hard to talk to. Give him a topic, he'll listen to you. Talk about your past. He'll think it the best thing in the world if you ground him!" she said. "He's so cute isn't he? Like a lost little boy."

It was silent after her speech. James spoke first.

"You haven't been here for five years but you sure got close to him fast didn't you?"

"Harry and I have always had a special relationship. Privet Drive kids call him St. Jimmy and I'm Hell's Angel. Just so you know, Harry's childhood wasn't all that bad. It was just when he went home at night. Other than that he was the happiest little child you would ever have the pleasure to meet. It's why they called him St. Jimmy. (St. Harry didn't sound right.) "Of course Mrs. Green I'll help you carry in your groceries." "I would love some lemonade, thank you Ms. Kent." Yes they all loved him. And I was his devil worshiping friend who knocked the groceries out of Mrs. Green's hands in the first place and dumped the lemonade on Harry's head."

"You sound fun," Sirius said.

"I was fun," she clarified. "Though Harry was much more fun than I was. He was nice and polite when it came to the sad widowed women all on their lonesome. He only did it because he got candy out of it. Then he would run outside and go whack people in the legs with a stick. He was hilarious. Though sometimes he did it cause he was just so dang thoughtful." They had all leaned in to listen to her talk as if they were enticed by the sound of her voice. Bonnie leaned back with a smile. "But I can't ruin all the stories. If you would like it to continue, you should ask Harry. He's a good storyteller when he wants to be."

They all leaned back in their seat. Harry walked back into the room. He looked at them all as they all looked back.

"What are we all talking about?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," everyone said in unison but Bonnie. She sighed.

"I'll be going now," she said standing up.

"Wait," Harry said. "Dad, can Bonnie stay for dinner."

"I'm sure her parents will want her to have dinner with them," Lily said.

"They aren't home. I'll basically be sitting at an empty table with devil nanny and her… perverted boyfriend."

Harry nodded back at his parents.

"We would love to have you join us," Lily said.

"Thank you." She sat back down and Harry sat down next to her.

"So Bonnie, Tonks said you came over early. What did you both do today?"

"Harry was working on his wall when I came in," she said making everyone look at him.

"Really? What have you done with it?" Sirius asked.

"It's hardly close to being finished. I think I might paint over it."

"You better not. I think it's beautiful."

"You think roses are the most beautiful thing in the world."

"They are!" She turned back to the others. "Then Harry had a breakdown in the bathroom with his Boss and came out to throw his cell phone at the wall."

"He was being unfair. It's not my fault I can't go to work. I loved my job. I got to let out all my anger on my client's skin. Digging a needle into someone's skin to draw out beautiful art is so relaxing."

"What happened to liking to listen to people's problems?" Bonnie asked, as the house elves came in with the food.

"That to," Harry said, cautiously eyeing his father and Sirius. Bonnie knew he didn't want to look like St. Jimmy in front of his father.

"You know I hate the new nickname. You should get the adults to just call you Harry. Two nicknames, or three, is just too much for one person," Bonnie said.

"Three?" Harry asked.

"Well Kumquat is just what I call you but it's still counted."

"Well the Bartender is out of the line up now anyway. Cause I've been fired. So now Tom can go back to singing his stupid song. I think Green Day wrote that song," he said, questioningly looking to Bonnie.

"I think that's where they got the name. Fish was always into American music wasn't he? Dookie. That's a weird name for an album cover."

"But didn't that song just come out?"

"Well maybe Fish _met them_… _and_ then he told them about St. Jimmy." They both sat in silence for a moment as if thinking about it.

"I'm sure they would have added Hell's angel in there somewhere."

"Maybe it didn't rhyme with anything. It is punk rock."

"Maybe he skipped a year of St. Brutisis and went to California to see if he could fit in with surfers. California has LA. Though that's not where bands go. Uh, I'm confusing myself now."

"Has Fish given you back your stuff yet?" Bonnie asked, changing the subject.

"No, I think he's a little reluctant to give me back my guitar."

"I think it is very safe in Fish's hands. At least he can play it."

"That's not the point. I don't know what he's doing with it. He could be batting off his brothers with it. Poor thing."

"He'd probably use the oboe instead."

"Ah, he can keep that. Tim told me he filled it with seaweed and called it a dingle-hopper. One of them should have their television removed. The Little Mermaid is being played too much."

"I love The Little Mermaid," Bonnie said.

"They're only watching it cause they're weird and they think that Ariel is hot. By the way, don't ask for your Goonies movie back."

"I will never lend them another movie."

"I don't know why you did the first time. When they were seven they killed your Bunny. I would never lend anything to them."

"They didn't kill Hippity. He died of natural causes. He was old."

"They poisoned him!" Harry said, as if she was insane.

"And you ate a piece of candy and whacked them all in the head with a rock― which I thank you for by the way. You weren't very nice to them either."

"It made for a nice summer though. Though Fish did get in trouble for dirtying the water in the community pool. That just hurt all of us."

"That was disgusting. Only you boys would find that a great summer."

"Well that was the year you were hiding your devil child inside and wearing pretty yellow sundresses. The rest of us were just acting normal. You joined us the next year."

"Oh yeah."

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

The conversation continued until dinner was over. The four couldn't follow a thing they were saying and they knew Bonnie was making it that way so that they would still have to ask Harry tomorrow.

Bonnie left after a little while and Harry said goodnight to everyone at the table with a large smile saying he was heading up to bed. Lily said she was going to do the same and headed up to bed as well after kissing James on the lips. James quietly followed Harry up the stairs to his room. Harry had changed into a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt before crawling into bed. He grabbed his cell phone from the side table and said hello.

"Hey Fish…. Uh, I'm not sure." Harry noticed his dad standing in his doorway. "You know what, hold on I'll ask." He turned to James as he walked into the room. "Dad, is it alright if Fish comes by in the morning to drop off some of my things?"

"Why does _Fish _have some of your things?" James asked sitting on the bed.

"Because if I kept them with me my Uncle Vernon would have killed everything while I was at school."

"Yeah I guess it's alright," James agreed.

Harry went back to the phone. "My dad said it's alright if you come by…. Floo, unless you can find some other way…. Um, just… you know what, if you want ask your sister to shrink it and take it through the fireplace with you…. Yeah all right. Don't bring anything else with―" the phone went dead. Harry flipped it closed. He looked up at his dad. "Fish is just bringing over my things and then he'll leave."

"What does he have of yours that you couldn't take with you to Hogwarts?" James asked.

"My motorcycle, my guitar, my flute, some sketch books, some paint, some books, some photo albums. You wanna see the stuff Bonnie brought over. She had some of my stuff too." Harry crawled out of bed before James could tell him not to and crawled back onto the bed happily with a blue box in his hands. "She held some of my pictures from Victoria's and all my awards that I got there." He opened the box and started to pull out a line of awards, medals, and papers to go with them and pictures from each ceremony. He pointed to each one and explained. "This one I got while discovering a secret note on the piano while playing it really fast. That's one of my best awards. This once is for just playing the piano so well. These are my first place ribbons for some of my artwork. This is for the best piano skills of that year as my teacher had said it for my fragile prodigy mind. For some reason they tended to stop talking to us like adults when we were out in public. Like being around normal people infected our brains or something."

Harry laughed and James felt like he was getting closer to him. He was glad Harry was talking so openly with him. Sirius had told him that Harry hated talking about himself. It meant a lot to James that Harry was letting him know something personal about him.

"This one is another one of my favorites. It's the Da Vinci award. They made it just for me. No one else has gotten one yet. I always used to do paintings of Jesus and stuff. I was always talking about angels and Da Vinci and stuff. So anyway, they gave it to me for the way I paint. Everything seems to stick out at you and they always seem so real. Plus Da Vinci was pure genius with his inventions. Stuff that was so beyond his time. This was my creation. It was for one of our projects at school. They sent it into the government." In Harry's hand was a still photo of what looked like some kind of cannonball launcher. "It was made out of toothpicks, regular tape and whatever we could pick out of our back packs. We were tested all the time for stuff like this. Like we were being studied, and… I think we were. They liked to give us tasks like this to see just what we could come up with. Some didn't do too well, it didn't count against you or anything, I heard most of the kids who didn't make much are going to top schools and are a year from finishing college or curing cancer maybe. But they seemed to like to see which of us could build what. I made this. It started electromagnetic energy out of everything on the earth, didn't hurt it mind you, at all, and powered stuff. Like lights, or school or electricity you know."

"But you made it out of Popsicle sticks," James questioned.

"Well I carried some weird stuff in my backpack and so did Bonnie. We shared supplies. Hers got taken to. She made some sort of medicine, chopping the Popsicle sticks into dust and mixing it with used gum and some parts of a tootsie roll that I could have eaten, and well… the rest is under strict research by the government so I can't really talk.

"So anyway," he continued, "these two awards are just for my art that got put into some British museum in London I think."

"You have art in a British museum?" James asked.

"Yeah," Harry sighed. "I didn't think it was that great but my teachers seemed to be in aww. So they sent it out and the museum bought it hoping I would be terribly famous one day. I am but not for what he wanted," Harry laughed, though James noted a hint of sadness in it, and the laugh was bit empty, like Harry wanted to laugh about it but really couldn't force himself to.

"These are all really great Harry," James said, feeling much more proud of his son. He had accomplished so much by just the age of sixteen starting at the age of five.

"Yeah, I didn't really care for them all when I had earned them. I was just having fun. Drawing and painting and doing algebra and studying medical science. Bonnie and I had the time of our lives in that school. It wasn't like going to school at all for us because everything came so easy. Unlike the wizarding world. I think we made great muggles. The kind that have it so easy."

"I'm glad you got to have a pretty fun childhood. Cause once you got into the wizarding world it was nothing but stares huh?"

"Well everything has its good and bad points. My childhood just had a lot more good then bad till I turned eleven. Bonnie left me for France and everyone started staring for reasons I didn't understand. But when I turned thirteen I met Sirius, but then when I turned fourteen I got someone killed, the next year I lost Sirius as well. The next year, you, mum, and Sirius all come back from the dead. I guess you always have to take the good in with the bad."

"You are very wise my son," James said pulling him closer to his side.

"Thanks," Harry said, cuddling into his father's arm. When he was little and had come home with an award each year he came home with a smile hoping for someone to be proud of him for what he had done. Someone other than Bonnie and Fish. They always told him how cool it was. But he thought maybe if he got more awards then his aunt and uncle would look at him differently and be a little proud of him or happy. He even expected that continuing to get them would help them know that it wasn't just stupid luck. He had really done well. But it wasn't till he was older that he learned the beatings weren't going to stop because he was smart, they were only going to get worse. So sitting here with his father's arm around him giving him praise over his awards meant so much to him his father would never guess.

James pulled Harry closer. To him, Harry was still his small, little baby boy and if Harry wanted to think so or act as such around him, James didn't mind. James raised another hand and held Harry's fringe back and kissed his forehead. "You should probably get to sleep Harry," James said gently.

"Mhmm," Harry hummed, wrapping his arms around James's neck. James found Harry quickly falling asleep clinging to the back of the neck of his father's robes. Once sure he was asleep James unlocked Harry's fingers from his robes and pulled them away from his neck gently setting Harry back onto his bed and into his pillows. Harry's head slumped to the side on his pillows and James was, for the first time since he had seen his son, suddenly able to see the lightning scar on Harry's forehead. Harry was always pulling on his hair to make sure it was covering his scar. It was a sort of nervous habit, James had noticed.

James reached out a hand and rubbed his thumb over the lighting bolt scar that everyone seemed to find so entertaining to stare at. A soft moan of contentment came from the back of Harry's throat as he fidgeted in his sleep. James pulled away feeling as if he wasn't allowed.

The pained expression left Harry's face and he looked like a doll again. James stroked Harry's hair back and kissed the top of his head avoiding his scar. "Goodnight Harry," he said quietly before quietly leaving the room.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

**Harry sat quietly on the soft grass in front of a tall oak tree in the park. Aunt Petunia was watching Dudley play with his friends on the swings. She looked over at Harry to make sure he was still there. She saw him looking and gave him a small smile before turning away again. Harry looked back at the grass and tore out a tiny blade. He pushed himself off the grass and walked over to his aunt, climbing onto the bench beside her. She looked over at him. She gave a quick glance at Dudley before turning back to him. "What is it Harry?" she asked. **

**(The only reason she was nice was because Harry was only four and they hadn't figured him an exact freak yet and still thought they could stomp it out of him. So she was being nice. Vernon still hated him, but he wasn't as mean as he was nowadays.)**

"**Where did mummy and daddy go?" Harry asked, folding his legs and placing his hands in his lap. **

"**What do you mean sweetie?" **

"**Why aren't they here anymore?" **

"**Oh, well, your mummy and daddy were in an accident remember? They got in a car crash and they died. But they didn't feel any pain." **

"**Why did they die?" Harry asked. As an afterthought he added, "what is dying?"**

"**Well they died because God decided to take them up to heaven to be with the angels. They're in heaven now." **

"**Oh," Harry said, ending his questions as though he knew what heaven was. Aunt Petunia looked over at Dudley and yelled for him to come over so they could leave. Harry climbed down off of the bench in a daze as they began to leave the park. They stopped at the light waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green. Harry stared at the passing cars as his aunt was talking to a friend. **_**If God Took Mummy and Daddy to Be With the Angels, I Want to Be With the Angels Too. **_**Harry took a step forward into the road, closing his eyes, willing God to take him away to be with his parents. **

**He heard the cars rushing toward him and the rumbling in the road and the screech of the breaks. "HARRY!" He felt someone grab his collar and was pulled out of the street. He opened his eyes to see the backside of a car pass three millimeters from him. His aunt Petunia pulled him onto the sidewalk and held him close as the car hit the sidewalk and everyone stepped back. Three other cars hit the first one and there was a huge obstruction of cars in the middle of the crosswalk blocking off traffic. Aunt Petunia and her friend looked down at Harry. **

"**Harry I told you not to walk across the street without me. Why would you do that?" she asked kneeling in front of him.**

"**I wanted God to take me away with the angels," Harry said ruefully. **

**\-\-\-\-\-\-\**

"Harry," said a gentle voice in his ear.

"St. Jimmy, wake the hell up!" said another.

"Don't yell at him," reprimanded a girl he recognized must be Bonnie. So the boy must be Fish.

"Hi Fish," Harry said groggily.

"Hey, Jimbo."

Harry tried to sit up but found he felt like lead was filling his body and it was all in the shape of knives poking at the inside of his skin. "Bonnie will you get me a potion from the table. I can't move." Bonnie moved to his side and grabbed a vile and handed it to him. Harry quickly sat and took it as quickly before lying back down.

"Aww poor St. Jimmy. Becoming powerful is hard work," Fish pouted.

"Stop mocking me Fish."

"I'm not. I feel terrible. So I brought over your things. You know how many pictures people took of you eating a piece of candy and whacking people in the calves with a stick. I was so very proud of the day we found out we could make you wild by feeding you American sugar. Ah, those were the days."

"That reminds me. Bonnie you still have my tootsie roll," he complained, wading into a sitting position while the pain began to ebb away.

"I was being stupid. I shouldn't have given it to you in the first place," Bonnie said sitting down on the bed on the opposite side as Fish. She had a large round black hat on today and white and black striped socks with her Mary Jane's.

"But I want it," Harry pouted.

Fish quickly grabbed it out of her purse before she could stop him and handed it to Harry. "Here you go St. Jimmy," he said happily.

"Fish, you shouldn't have done that!" Bonnie reprimanded.

"Bonnie, this is the Jesus of Suburbia. You can't deny him something he obviously wants," Fish said strenuously.

"Even Jesus was. He was hung on a cross before he got what he wanted remember? You need to read more Fish," Bonnie reprimanded.

"I'm right here. And I'm not a child. I can decide weather I can eat chocolate or not. And I say yes." He took a bite of his candy and crawled out of bed. "I'll be back in a few minutes." He went into the bathroom and came back a few minutes later fully dressed and cleaned. Bonnie and Fish were sitting on the floor waiting for him.

"Okay Jimmy," Fish said as Harry joined them on the floor around his old things. "Let me introduce you to some missing things that I found in _your _closet, since after a while I just gave you your own. So here it is. You have: your whacking stick that you've had since you were just a wee thing of four, labeled St. Jimmy― Jesus Of Suburbia. Then we have your photo albums― there are five of them: one from all of us, one Mrs. Green gave you, one Ms. Kent gave you, and two others I don't remember where you got them. Then, we have your motorcycle that is the size of a remote so don't get it mixed for a toy. Then we have your guitar, which I wasn't thinking about not giving back to you but I guess I mine-as-well let you keep it if you aren't going to play it. Your flute, two sketch books, some paint, which I don't get why you kept, some books, and last but not least, your black book." Fish handed Harry a large, square, black book.

"Aww, I did forget all about this. It'll be easier to keep track of the meetings now." He opened the book that was made for a list of names all written backwards.

_St. Jimmy _―_ Jesus of Suburbia _

_The Suburban Children of "Sub Gossip Parents" _

_John Hatch _―_ Fish_

_Tom Tober _―_ Tim_

_Tim Tober _―_ Tom _

_Bonnie McNeal _―_ Pet_

The names continued page after page. Harry closed it and set it aside. "This is good. I love it with you guys. Makes me feel slightly more normal."

"Well you know what's coming up don't you?" Fish asked.

"What is that?"

"Sober day."

"Oh yeah, everything that's happened I kind of forgot this year. Anything happened this year besides Bonnie coming back."

"Uh yeah actually," Fish said sadly. Fish quickly told both Bonnie and Harry what had happened.

"Does anyone else know?" Harry asked.

"I think the twins do, and so does Toilet."

"Alright. I'll make the announcements. Uh, what concert are we going to?"

"You'll never believe it," Fish said excitedly. "'The worlds of 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!' and 'Panic! At the Disco' have been shoved together to make one awesome sold out show. Plus a dash of 'Fallout Boy' and a pinch of 'The Subways', a concert that can't lose."

"I wonder how I'll persuade my father to let me go tomorrow night?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out."

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

After an hour in his room laughing over things they found in his books and photo albums James walked into the room. "Harry, you ready to go. Your friends should be heading home now," he said.

"Oh, sure. I'll meet you downstairs in a few minutes." James nodded and left the room. Harry stood while gathering some of his books and Bonnie and Fish stood as well.

"You know living with him; he isn't really as Sirius had portrayed him. He's very serious, almost all the time."

"At least he's not passed out on the floor from an over-abundance of alcohol. Stop complaining Jimmy," Fish said.

"Sorry." Harry put his books on his bed. "Well, I'll get my dad to let me out of the house for tomorrow night. You know how good I am at persuading people. But could you call everyone, make sure they have a ticket to the concert, make sure they remember to follow to dinner. Call Toilet and let him know he's the new driver since he has a license. Which I want a copy of. I think that's it. Bonnie, you're coming right?"

"Yep. I'll see you tomorrow. You can tell me how the date with your parents went. I hope it goes well. Try not to make them too uncomfortable."

"I don't make them uncomfortable!" Harry said. Both Fish and Bonnie stopped trying not to look too obvious. "Do I?"

"No, of course not!" Bonnie said. "I was just joking. You have fun."

"Let's just go. I still have to shove the two of you through the fireplace."

They all headed downstairs and Bonnie and Fish left before Harry headed to the parlor where his parents were standing. Sirius and Remus must have left already. "If we're going out can I have my wand back?" Harry asked, gaining their attention.

"You'll be fine. It's just Diagon Alley," James said. "Come along now," he said, taking Harry's arm and leading him back to the Floo room.

"What exactly are we going to Diagon Alley for? You know everyone will be staring. You both just came back from the dead."

"Would you rather stay here?" Lily asked.

"Wouldn't you?" Harry asked.

"Well your father doesn't mind the public eye and I don't really mind, but if you do we can stay here."

"… No, that's okay. We can go." James wrapped his arm around him and led him right to the floo.

"Can you make it through the floo?"

"I'm fine."

James went through first and Harry followed after with his mother in tow. Harry landed not as gracefully as he would have wanted to but his father caught him before he actually hit the floor. His mother came out very gracefully and Harry was envious that only women had that gene passed down to travel through floo as easily as they walked.

James sighed looking around at the half full pub. "I haven't been to Diagon Alley since I was 22."

Harry looked at him for a second. "You're still 22," Harry pointed out.

James tilted his head like he was thinking about it. "I guess I am. That's a bit creepy isn't it?"

"Not really. It's kind of cool to have young parents. You just got out of school five years ago. Not counting the years you were dead." He was speaking quietly as if talking at a normal tone would attract everyone in the pub.

"That's a good perspective. Butterbeer?" he asked, taking his wife's hand. Lily hooked her arm with Harry and pulled him along to a table. They all sat down and Madam Rosemerta came over to take their order. They had three butterbeers.

"So Harry," James said, leaning his head down to catch Harry's eye as Harry wouldn't look up from the table. "Is the table sending you the secrets of life?" he asked.

Harry looked up at him and felt a flash go off beside him. He put his head back down with a groan. James looked to the side to see a reporter sitting inconspicuously by the bar. James stood up and went to the bar. He turned the man with the camera around and tore it out of his hand. "Can I borrow this― thanks." He opened the back, tore out the film, and flicked it with his finger making it spark and sound like it was fizzing before settling down. James shoved it back into his hands and smiled at him. "Have fun with that." The man sat with his broken camera shocked for a moment before growling and walking out of the pub giving them a nasty look.

Harry finally looked up. "Thanks," Harry said, before searching the pub for any more.

"Sure," James said. "You'd think they would get bored after a while."

"No, cause stuff keeps happening to make me more interesting. Rita Skeeter had a lot of fun with me forth year. Hermione and I were supposedly going out that year according to her. She doesn't like leaving me alone. Now there are more to take her place. I don't think reporters are human because they seem to just multiply."

"How unlucky for you," James said. "Have they ever said anything good about you?"

"When they finally got over themselves they posted that I wasn't insane and demented and attention seeking and then they started to worship me again. Though I'm sure their newest article about me will be about you and how I'm not the poor lonely boy-who-lived anymore."

"They like you being the poor lonely boy-who-lived?" Lily asked.

"Of course. Or as Rita says, 'everyone loves a rebel.' And apparently being lonely you become a _twelve-year-old_ rebel. She kept putting that I was twelve when I was really fourteen."

"Well, I really can't relate. I was only in the paper once when I was fighting Lucius Malfoy for bachelor of the year. I didn't win. I got married."

"But didn't Lucius Malfoy have an arranged marriage? Wouldn't he have gotten married first?" Harry asked.

"Me and your mother got married right out of school. He didn't marry Narcissa until he was a month out of school."

"Probably doing something for Voldemort."

"Probably…. Harry do you mind if I ask how you got the name St. Jimmy?"

"Well… St. Harry didn't sound as good." His father was still waiting for an actual answer so Harry continued. "Seriously it didn't sound as good so they took my middle name, James, called me Jimmy and gave me the Saint label because I always carried a cross around with me. I was little, and when you hate that God had taken your parents away with the angels you kind of end up getting obsessed with it and try to talk to God and ask him to take extra special care of them and maybe take you away in your sleep. Plus, you know, I'm sure Bonnie told you while she was sitting with you yesterday, I helped everyone carry in their groceries. Though it wasn't very saintly of me, as I only did it to get the American candy from them and then I went out and whacked adults in the shin with a big stick."

"Why did you whack people with a stick?" Lily asked.

Harry just shrugged. "I d'know. I just thought it was fun."

"So you all have your own little nicknames," James said. "Bonnie told us she was dubbed Hell's Angel."

"Yeah, Fish got his name cause we all think he could move to California and live with those like his name and become a surfer. Because he looks like one."

"Ah, does Fish live on Privet Drive?" James asked.

"No, only me and Hilton live on Privet Drive, everyone else lives on Mongolia Cresent or the streets further down."

Harry finally got out of talking about himself sometime within the next half-hour and sighed in relief. His parents shouldn't know too much about him or he would have nothing to blackmail them with. So for the rest of the time they headed out of the pub and walked around Diagon Alley while his parents told him stories about themselves.

When there was finally a dead silence while Harry and his father were waiting for Lily to finish picking out books they may not already have in their library. Harry knew he would have to ask sooner or later and right now he thought if he could persuade his father then his mother wouldn't be much of a problem as James seemed oddly more over-protective. And though he didn't want to ruin the lovely day with pleading his father to let him leave the house tomorrow night, the day was almost over and he did need to ask or he would disappoint his friends.

He sighed and quietly turned to his father only to catch him quickly turn away as if he had been watching him think. Harry was sitting on a pile of books in the back of the bookstore, where no one shopped anymore because he guessed no one liked dark spaces. And his father was standing by the edge of the bookshelf to stand just slightly in the light while still keeping an eye on both his wife and son.

Harry picked up a book near his feet and pretended to look it over while not even really taking in the color of the binding. "Hey dad," Harry said gently, not looking up from the book, as he held the binding with his three fingers on each side letting any stray papers fall out onto the pile at his feet.

"What is it Harry?" James asked, glancing quickly at his wife, wondering how long it took her to pick out one book they didn't have already, before turning to his son waiting for him to continue.

"Well, I need to ask you something." James nodded, walking over to him and continuing to pull up a chair in the darkness near the small window Harry was sitting in front of. "Well, your first answer will probably be 'it's not safe.' But I need you to understand that this is really, really, important." James nodded again, but more slowly. "Well, every year, since we were five years old, our little group: me, Fish, Tom, Tim. Bonnie joined us when she moved in at seven. Since then we've been meeting up at a diner, every night on a certain day just to show that we're still friends. Though back then it was just to get out of the house. Well now this group has expanded to a lot of people, and we've gotten older. Now we go to a concert before heading over to the diner. And strangely enough it's always one of our favorite bands playing that day. But anyway, it's really important that I be there, at this gathering. So as soon as I tell you that it's tomorrow I'm going to need you to say yes," Harry said as fast as he could work out the words.

"You want to go to a concert? Tomorrow? In your condition?"

"I don't know what condition you're talking about. I'm fine."

"Harry, you can't go to a concert. Not right now, it's too dangerous at the moment. I can't let you."

"Dad please. There is a very important reason I need to go. It's tradition. I've been doing it since I was five. It was always the only night everyone didn't have to go home to drunk, drugged, loud, and abusive families. Please dad, I have to go."

"So, if I let you go, can I have you followed by Order members for precautions?" he asked.

"Uh… sure, whatever."

"Fine, you can go. But you're staying in bed the entire time before you leave."

Harry rolled his eyes but agreed anyway.

James kept looking away with his eyes then back at Harry with a strange look. "You've been going to rock concert since you were five?" James asked.

"No, all of us going to a restaurant afterward. Since we were five, we would have dinner together instead of sitting home alone waiting for our parents to pass out or send us to our rooms to wait for our beating and then we would stay over at someone's house. Ever since Bonnie moved in it's been at her house; besides the five years she was in Paris. And since we were nine we've been going to concerts. All age concerts till we were thirteen and then we snuck into some."

"Sounds nice."

"Yeah."

"So, you'll be staying at Bonnie's tomorrow night?"

"Yes. We'll all be sleeping in her ballroom. Her butler has it all made out for us once we get there."

James nodded. He didn't believe Harry to do anything stupid. He trusted him. Especially since it was obvious to everyone that he was in love with Bonnie but neither Harry nor Bonnie would admit to anything.

When Lily had finally gotten and paid for all of her books they went to leave Diagon Alley. On their way back to the Leaky Cauldron Harry was unfortunately met with another reporter. One not so easy to get rid of.

"Harry," she said happily. Harry rolled his eyes and his parents turned around. Harry turned around as well to see Rita Skeeter walking quickly over to him.

"Hi Rita," Harry said gloomily. "I thought you weren't allowed to talk to me for a year?"

"Years up Harry dear," she smiled happily. "Oh and I love the lip ring. Seems you've taken my advice haven't we? Everyone does love a rebel." Harry saw the Quick Quotes Quill working quickly behind her, looking at him over her arm every few seconds.

"I know you'll post it true anyway. Why don't you tell the world I hate all my fans and I'm going to hunt them all down on my motorcycle? Think that will make for an interesting story?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Motorcycle? You own a motorcycle. Lovely. I'll be sure to add that. Now, if you would be so kind as to give us a nice picture. I only have one from when you were… fourteen. You've grown a lot since then. You don't even have to smile; it might ruin your surly demeanor."

Harry just stared at her. "I'm leaving now," he said, about to turn away.

"Oh, Harry. It's just one picture," Rita said. "You don't know what the article is about. You've hardly said anything. I promise that if you give me a picture I will not ask another question." Harry stopped. He turned around and looked at Rita.

"You mean you'll stop asking questions period or you'll just stop right now?"

"Right now. Maybe till next week."

Harry sighed. "It's kind of worth it," Harry said.

"Oh good." A man with a camera came out from a corner and joined beside Rita Skeeter. "Now just smile and give a little pose." Harry stood still and stiff and he glared at her. "Come on. A smirk, smile? Anything?"

Harry stopped his glare but he didn't smile. "Fine." She turned to the man. "Take the picture so we can leave." The man took the picture and Harry quickly turned away from them and continued to walk. "See you in the paper Harry," Rita said. Harry gave back a crude remark with only the use of one finger as he walked away from her.

James and Lily quickly followed to catch up as Harry had forgotten them. James tried to grab his arm to make him slow down but Harry flinched away and continued walking. James didn't dare call his son's name in a room full of people in fear of making him angrier. And sadly he was afraid of making his son angry with him. So they both followed him through the floo. When they got inside the house Harry was already running up the stairs to his room. Sirius and Remus walked in and saw and looked at James questioningly.

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"We met up with Rita Skeeter in Diagon Alley. Some reporter. She asked for his picture and he gave in. Then he ran back to the house. I tried to get him to stop so I could ask him what was wrong but he flinched away and came back here."

"Well Harry usually doesn't like his picture taken," Sirius said. "Everyone knows that. He tries everything to avoid getting put in the paper."

"Why did he give in?"

"She said she wouldn't bother him for maybe a week. He said it might be worth it."

"And now he's angry about it, I'm guessing," James said. "I'm gonna try and talk to him," James said heading for the stairs.

"Careful James. Harry's been known to have Lily's temper," Sirius said. Lily whacked his arm.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

James knocked on Harry's door and walked in when there wasn't an answer. Music was blaring from the radio and Harry was lying on his bed with his face away from the door. "Harry?"

"Go away," Harry said gloomily. James closed the door behind him and headed over to Harry's bed. He didn't know exactly what to say. He hadn't been led up to the teenager stage, it just jumped right out at him. But he knew that he couldn't leave Harry to wallow in self-misery, as Harry did take things as bigger problems then they actually were. He sat down on the bed beside Harry. "I said to go away."

"I can't leave you like this. What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"Ah, nothing?" It was silent for a moment, as James was guessing if he sat here staring at his son Harry would get annoyed and start to talk. It didn't take as long as he thought. Though Harry was stubborn he wanted to be able to talk to his parents about anything. Harry sat up and moved to sit beside his father on the side of the bed.

"I'm a hypocrite. You have every right to lose whatever respect you had for me," Harry said calmly, before trying to move back to his recent position. James stopped him and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry sighed as though he had thought the conversation was over.

"Harry, I am not going to lose respect for you over this. And you are not a hypocrite."

"Yes I am. I spend all five years I've been in the wizarding world trying to avoid the cameras and reporters and hating them dearly and saying how I would never willingly give a picture or interview if it wasn't something really important. And now I just willingly gave up a picture and I don't even know what it will be used for."

"So what? You learn from your mistakes. No one is going to think any less of you because you gave in to their begging for a picture. It has to get annoying, huh?"

"I'll think less of me."

"So why did you say yes?"

"Because I wanted her to go away!"

"Well I don't think it's anything to think less of yourself over, Harry. Everyone makes decisions they don't like afterward. You can't take this like it's the end of the world."

"Everything I do has a way to lead to the end of the world."

"I think you should try not making people feel sorry for you. You do a good job of it by continuously talking about how anything you do will end in you dying. If you ask me I have no doubt you're going to win and you're going to live. And having your picture taken and put in the paper is the least of your worries at the moment. Or maybe you like to wallow in the small problems so that you don't have to think about the big ones. And you blast the loud music so you don't have to think about either." Harry was quiet for a moment.

"Go away," he said, rolling onto his side to face the other wall again.

"Oh," James smiled, leaning over his son, "so that is what you're doing. I'm getting good at reading you aren't I? I feel so proud of myself." Harry had to keep himself from smiling at his father's happiness at this moment. He felt James lean over him while smiling and it was slowly lightening Harry's mood, but he wouldn't show it. Unfortunately, James was right and he was getting good at reading him. "Come on," he smiled, "you know you want to smile to. You have that famous Potter grin in you that you can't hold back. It's a curse and a gift." His father was enjoying himself far too much. Harry turned and dug his face into his pillow to hide the fact that the corners of his mouth kept twitching. "Oh you can't hide it that's cheating," James said in mock-outrage, trying to force his son to roll over so he could look at him. But Harry was a master at the art of hiding his face when he wanted to. James sighed. "Fine, then. But you should know that, if you're going to worry yourself with only small problems and make them bigger, you mine-as-well just worry about the big problems."

"That makes sense," Harry said through his pillow, making his voice quite muffled.

"Yes it does, doesn't it? So are you going to stop wallowing?"

"Maybe," Harry said into his pillow.

James stared at his son waiting for him to look at him again. His wait was not rewarded. He leaned over Harry again and tried to look at his face but Harry was so deep into his pillow James wasn't sure how he was breathing. He put his hand on Harry's back, both comforting and to check that he was breathing. He was. "Are you still awake Harry?"

"Mhmm," Harry said muffled.

"Are you alright?" James asked worried. Harry hadn't taken any pain relief potion since this morning but he had claimed he was fine all day. But Harry didn't answer, he only moved and brought his hands to his head while still leaning into his pillow. "Harry?" Harry started to shake silently. James was scared since Harry wouldn't answer him. He forced Harry to turn over but Harry was gripping tightly to his forehead where his scar was. Harry seemed to be in so much pain that he was silent. James pushed Harry's hair back and saw Harry was covering his scar. Harry finally lost all power over the pain and passed out, his hand smearing blood that had formed from his scar. James remembered Dumbledore telling him about the pains Harry got from his scar but he didn't remember anyone telling him about Harry passing out from it. He got onto his knees and leaned over Harry gently and removed the blood. He took out his wand and said 'enervate' waving it over Harry's face; Harry shot up breathing hard as if he just woke from a nightmare. James quickly wrapped his arms around him tightly as Harry tried to regain control of his breathing. "Baby, are you alright?" James asked, inadvertently calling him 'baby' without thinking about it.

Harry realized whom he was clinging to and quickly pushed away slightly. "I'm fine." He moved away from his father. He started to move off his bed and turned off his radio. "We should go downstairs for dinner."

"Harry, are you sure you're okay. You passed out and your scar was bleeding."

"Dad, I'm fine," Harry said, indifferently, with a hint of scare in his voice that James hadn't heard since Harry had fallen asleep in his arms that night.

"Did you see something?" James asked, leaving Harry's bed to stand beside him as Harry stood away from the stereo.

"No, I was just out for a moment. I'm fine. Let's go eat." Harry was out of the room before James could protest so he followed him out.


	12. St Jimmy Comin Down Across the Alley

AN:

Zephisto: Thanks for the review. There is a second part. I'll put it on this site after I finish posting the first part.

Nicky: I'm in the process of putting the entire story on this site. And I will update the second part of the other site in due time. The first part of the story on the other site, I'm not sure if I'll repost it because I have to do so much editing.

12

St. Jimmy's Comin' Down Across the Alley Way…

Dinner that night was a quiet affair as Harry didn't seem one to talk tonight. Even after James's talk with him. Remus and Sirius had tried to make conversation as Lily and James seemed to run out of questions that Harry would answer throughout the day. But they only got one-word answers to each question. When they asked him what was wrong, he only pushed his plate away, stood up and said he was tired and heading to bed. He left the table and dining room, apparently heading up to his room.

Harry sat down on his bed and let Prose slither up beside him, obviously sensing he wasn't feeling well. He guessed all pets had that notion to be by you while you were upset or sick. Nam didn't seem to be the same as he tried to stay away as if to give Harry space. Hedwig was still up in the owlery.

Harry let Prose curl up beside him and then slid his fingers over the smooth snakeskin that strangely soothed him, much like when people pet their dogs or cats. Harry's other arm was curved above his head on the pillow. Prose was quietly talking to him but only comforting words instead of getting straight to asking what was wrong. They hadn't had the time yet to get to know each other so it wasn't a big thing.

Harry slowly fell asleep and Prose stayed with him. That's why James left his room after entering, not gaining enough Gryffindor courage to move the snake and sit by his son. He would have all day tomorrow to do that.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\

Harry woke up to the sounds of people whispering around him. "I don't want to touch the snake. You touch the snake."

"It's hissing at me. You move it."

"It won't bite Harry, will it?"

These three voices were so obviously Sirius, Remus, and James and Harry could decipher, which was which, just by the questions they asked.

"What are you all doing in my room?" Harry asked sleepily, slowly opening his eyes. His father was standing against the wall of his room on the same side as the snake and Sirius and Remus were right beside it trying to remove it without getting bitten. They both looked at him when he talked and Harry felt Prose try to strike while they weren't looking.

"Harry, you're awake," Sirius said, moving away from the snake. "The snake has curled around your arm and we weren't sure if it was trying to strangle you."

"Why would Prose strangle me?" Harry asked. "Prose is a nice snake. Aren't you Prose?" Harry asked his snake in a babyish voice. Prose nodded his head.

"We were just worried," James said, carefully moving closer but on the other side of the bed. "You feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Harry claimed pushing himself up to sit against his pillows. Prose slithered onto his lap and curled into a circle. "I guess he's been feeling a bit ignored."

"I guess," James said, a bit reserved about a snake being so close to his son. "So you're staying in bed all day today you know. No getting up for any reason but to use the loo. Got it?"

"Sure," Harry yawned as his phone rang. "Hang on," he yawned. He grabbed his phone off his table. "Do you know what time it is? …. Oh. What do you want? …. Well that's just great Fish. Tell her I said the same…. Oh goodie. I'll take Bonnie…. Who is she out with anyway? …. Masterful! I'll call her and throw the phone against the wall…. See you tonight." Harry threw his phone at the end of his bed and slid back into his sheets with a groan.

"What was that about?" Remus asked.

"Alicia has broken up with me for a _man_ named Ted Beret. What kind of name is that? Anyway, apparently, I'm too friendly and like every other girl I have ever broken up with, they're jealous of ex-girlfriends, threatened by ex-girlfriends, threatened by soon to be girlfriends/ex-girlfriends, or feel that the relationship is being invaded by Bonnie or that I'm cheating on them with her. Stupid girls don't know what they're talking about and I'm always the last one to find out I'm not going out with them anymore. Unless I break up with them."

"You're just so good at having a girlfriend aren't you?" James asked.

"I'm a master. They just don't stay for long because soon they realize that it's never going to go any farther than that. No marriage, no children."

"I still don't get why you don't want children," James said, sitting down by Harry's side. "Your mother isn't very happy about that. She wants grandchildren. And you know it is your job as the first born son to continue on the name Potter, which has a lot of power in the wizarding world. Especially since you entered it."

"Well then you and mother are going to have another child. A son if you want someone to carry on the name. Your first son plans to die on his seventeenth birthday."

"I thought we talked about this. You're not going to talk about dying like that anymore."

"I said I would stop worrying about _you_ dying. I never said anything about knowing I'll die at an early age. Now if you would be so kind, could someone grab me the large black book on the floor over there? I have work to do."

Remus picked it up and handed it to him as Harry moved Prose down to his knees. James asked, "What work?"

Harry opened the book to the list of names that didn't have any numbers next to them like the other pages did.

"I have to call everyone up and ask how long they have been sober and how long it was since they broke the law." Harry grabbed quill and ink from his bedside table and started to write out the date.

"Why is everything backwards?" Sirius asked looking down over the backward lettering.

"Leonardo Da Vinci always wrote theories to his inventions and life backward in this writing to keep others from looking in on his work. Some say it was because he was left-handed. As it may be that I find it hard to believe he didn't use this fact to his advantage. I'm trying to master his writings. I'm a bit obsessed with him." Harry looked at his phone. "Can you hand me that?" he asked Remus, who handed it to him. Harry flipped it open and looked through his phonebook pressing the first number it said. He listened to the dial tone.

"Happy Sober Day what can I do for you?" asked the other voice.

"Hey Dig. Time to give up your sober dates," Harry communicated.

"Oh right. Well you're not going to be happy but only seven days."

"Seven! Last year you had 29!" Harry said looking back a few pages back.

"I know, I know. I was persuaded. I know I mustn't. But I forgot that sober day was coming. I know I'll do better this year, I swear."

"You will." Harry marked a seven beside Dig's name and put a comma beside it. "And how long ago was it that you have broken the law in any way?"

"Ohh, uh… 42 days. I think I remember steeling some money from a kid at school."

"Well that's better I guess," Harry said marking down a 42 beside the seven. "I'll see you later tonight."

Harry hung up his phone. "Poor Dig." He looked at the next person on his list.

"Harry," James started, making Harry look up. "We need to talk a bit."

"Mhmm," Harry said, noticing Fish was next and he already knew his so he was copying them down while his father talked.

"Well, you're getting better. You won't have to stay in bed anymore after tonight. In the morning, once you get home, as I think I remember you saying, you'll be sleeping on Bonnie's ballroom floor, you're going to start your training."

"Training?" Harry asked, watching Dàv's name sitting on the paper.

"Yes, well with all the power you have gained over the week in your tiny little sixteen year old body you won't be very healthy without proper exercise. To lose a bit of it. You're also going to be spending some time learning about your new skills and magic. Wandless and with a wand. Do you understand?"

"Huh? Yeah sure," Harry said, ignoring the fact that they were still there and crossing himself for Dàv's name. He then took up his quill and marked down the word 'deceased' and the date of two days before.

"You're okay with this?" his father asked.

"Why wouldn't I be? I get to leave my bed. I'm happy as a clown." He picked up his phone again and called someone else before his father could protest. After a few minutes he was off again.

"So you're prepared to start training?" James asked, a little afraid that Harry would be against being trained for a war he didn't want to be leading.

"That's what I said," Harry said. "Ah, Bonnie. Let's see. Since last year, it has been 365 days since she had a drink and two days since she broke the law." He looked up at the three men. "She stole a pretzel from a small child on his way home. She's so mean sometimes."

"So the law breaking part means anything?" Remus asked.

"Well, I must say that it used to not be. Though it still counted, it really didn't need to be counted, as the same day they had pick-pocketed a guy off the street and then, had also stolen the man's car on his way apart from the person." Harry then went back to his work and picked up his phone again. The three were quiet for a moment anyway as they tried to analyze what had just been said from Harry's mouth. "Hi Ial (pronounced Ih-all not eel)," Harry said in his phone.

When Harry had finished his work in his book he set it aside along with his phone, still waiting to call on Alicia later.

"Harry there is one other thing we need to talk about," James said nervously. He joined Harry to sit beside him on his bed as Prose had decided to slither away probably to go hunt. Harry looked up at him with waiting eyes. "Well, nobody is really sure what you would be able to do with your power. And since we have no chance of having you able to control it entirely by the end of the summer, while you're at school, you're going to be followed. Two Aurors will be following you to each of your classes."

"You don't trust me?"

"Oh, Harry its not that we don't trust you. It's that we don't know if you'll be able to control your power whether you try to or not. You might need a lot of help to keep your attempt at turning a mouse into a dog, from turning a mouse into a giant hippogriff or even a rock as your power could backfire on you and not work at all. We don't know what will happen and we just want to make sure you're going to be okay."

Harry looked down at his sheets that were bare now as Prose and his book had left him. "Okay. I guess I can live with people following me around."

"Thank you," James said moving Harry hair again. "I promise the people following you around will not be too annoying."

"Why? Who's going to be following me around?" Harry asked.

James pointed to Sirius and Remus who were standing at the end of the bed against the end posts.

"You two?"

"Why, what's wrong with us?" Sirius mocked.

"Nothing. Which reminds me, who is going to be stalking me tonight?"

"Sirius and Tonks. We were going to send Remus but he might get distracted."

"James, I'm going to kill you if you keep talking like that. There is nothing going on."

"You keep telling yourself that Remus but you like her to. I think it's cute," Sirius said, putting on a pouty lip. "But she's my favorite cousin so you better be nice to her."

"She's too young for me; I don't know what you're talking about."

"But she loves you Remmy," Sirius said, leaning against him and looking up at him from his shoulder with batting eyelashes.

"I'm too dangerous for her as well."

"Hey, you're not dangerous Moony. You have lots of control. You're running out of reasons why you can't love her."

"I never said I love her anyway. You're both getting way out of hand."

"But Remmy," Sirius whined, sitting down on the end of Harry's bed. "She's left her hair short and brown and she has dull eyes just because she thinks if she looks more plain you may find her more attractive. How she could believe that I don't know but that's what she's doing. And you're still ignoring her. She's going to start thinking that you hate her personality and end up being one of those weird girls who are so obsessed with getting you that they cling to your arm and never let go."

"Where do you get this stuff?"

"Personal experience," Sirius said. They all turned and looked at Harry as they started to hear the scratch of a quill again. They had all been so talkative about Remus's love life that they hadn't noticed Harry sneak out of bed to grab his sketchbook. He looked up when they stopped talking.

"What?"

"What are you drawing?" Sirius asked moving closer.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly, pulling the sketchbook against his chest.

"You had to have been drawing something. The quill was moving," James pointed out.

"Well it's nothing. Maybe it was a line, you don't know."

"Can I see the line?" James mocked.

"No. I don't show my drawings or paintings to anyone. Except Bonnie, and maybe Fish if he catches me."

"But you won't show your own father?" James asked, putting a hand to his heart.

"No," Harry said, turning back to his book. James caught him off guard and took it from his hands and jumped from the bed.

"Ha, and you can't get out bed," James mocked as Harry tried to get at his sketches while still on the bed. He slumped down in his seat again when James looked down at the paper. Sirius and Remus went over to look as well, their jaws dropping in awe at the drawing.

"You drew this in three seconds?" Sirius asked.

"No, I started it a few days ago but haven't had the time to work on it. Can I have it back now?"

"Harry these are really good," James said.

"Thanks," Harry said modestly.

"So you did learn something in that school. They didn't just study you."

"Actually I could draw like that before I went to school," Harry said, flipping a page of the sketchbook to the very front. "See? I did that when I was five."

On the page was a drawing almost equally as good. The lines had gotten a little more drawn out but the technique and workmanship was still the same. With fine lines and no fatal errors and all the bodies sculpted as if they were real and really moving inside the picture.

After many moments of watching the three look through his work he had to grab it back from their clutches. He looked at their shocked faces and turned back down to the sheets to explain. "Sorry, I just don't like people looking. Ever since that stupid painting got up in the museum I like to keep my art to me, having it just to keep my sanity up."

"Oh," was all they said.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

Later that night, Harry left through the floo with his miniature bike in his pocket, and Tonks and Sirius fell behind. Harry went into the library to collect Bonnie who was, what a surprise, reading Gone With the Wind on top of her table. She was wearing a black long sleeved shirt with a short, deep blue skirt that stopped at her knees and was poofed up in bunches of black lace and she was still wearing her red Dock Martin boots.

He went in to collect her and they both went outside where Sirius and Tonks had already placed themselves in the shadows of the street. Harry threw his motorcycle out of his pocket so when it hit the ground it was regular size again.

Harry and Bonnie stood in front of her house looking to see if anyone was out on the street yet. Harry put two fingers to his lips and gave a loud whistle to tell them he was impatient. People automatically came out of their houses and two cars pulled out of the driveway along with a motorcycle that Fish was riding with a girl named Hanna on the back.

"Hi Harry," she smiled seductively as Harry took his keys from his back pocket.

"Hi Hanna," Harry said distractedly trying to find the right key.

He found it and got on his bike. He grabbed Bonnie's wrist, as she was about to walk away. "You're riding with me."

"What about Alicia?"

"We broke up," Harry said while starting the motor. Bonnie didn't even try to hide her smile, as he didn't see it anyway, and climbed onto the bike behind Harry, wrapping her arms around his waist. As soon as the car behind them beeped Harry and Fish took off to the club near London. Bonnie was having the best ride of her life; her arms wrapped around Harry's waist unconsciously touching his abs and pressed her cheek to his back with her eyes closed. This is as close as she suspected she would ever get to Harry. As she thought he only thought of her as a friend. I mean, why would he like me if he could have any girl alive? Bonnie asked herself.

They all had a great time at the club together, singing the words to all the songs they knew. Ial and Siphe stood too close to the speakers and continued to yell at everyone as the concert was over. Harry had the time of his life, forgetting that he wasn't dating Bonnie and dancing with her anyway instead of all the girls who were hitting on him throughout the night. Bonnie felt like she was floating on air when Fallout Boy decided they were going to play, Forever Young by the Youth Group, which was her favorite song, and then Harry asked her to dance. That's when everything began to feel like floating on air. Fish and Hanna ended up making out against a wall behind the stage.

When the concert was over they all got back in their cars and headed to a diner christened 'Jimmy's'. It was only mere coincidence that this restaurant was within walking distance of their sub but it wasn't a coincidence that they had picked this one. At the age of five they thought it was hilarious that Harry had the same name as a restaurant even if Jimmy wasn't his real name.

They had their own personal area set up in the back where 26 seats were made available. Harry sat in a round booth at the front of the room in the center. Fish sitting on one side of him with Hanna and Bonnie on the other.

When everyone had taken their seats at a booth or table Harry stood up to make his speech. Everyone quickly looked to him.

"We gather here today, on this day of holy matrimony― Oops, wrong speech. Anyway, we are here today, to gather as friends, as the Suburban Children of "Sub Gossip Parents.' We meet here once a year, to regain old childhood memories and make new ones. Making sure we are still the connected friends we were since the age of five. Some of us have not been here that long. Our group grows larger each year and yet sadly… it has the power to also grow smaller. It is a sad and sorry way to start off the night, but I must address some awful news. Our dear friend, David, or as some knew him, Dav, was killed two days ago. In a way that mocked what we are, here today, trying to prevent. Dav was standing in the driveway near the garage on his way into his home. It was that tragic night that his own mother had picked to drive home drunk. In her drunken state, and in the dark. Being too drunk to swerve away from her son, poor Dav was hit. By his own drunken mother. He was a great friend and an especially great person. Also, a great driver, unlike some people," he directed to Toilet, who now drove one of the cars; quite poorly. Toilet shrugged innocently. "It is this night, more then any other, that it is important to remember who we have with us and not take it for granted, because we have no idea when one of us will be gone. I think that now, we should all take a moment of silence to honor his memory." The whole diner seemed to have gone quiet for them, after watching as Harry crossed himself and lower his own head. When Harry lifted his head a minute later he saw the owner telling the waitresses that it was a normal thing for them to come here. Everyone followed, lifting their heads and looking back to Harry.

"Onto less upsetting topics," he continued, "though Dav is no longer with us, we now have our lovely and gifted Bonnie, or Hell's Angel, who had left us a whole five years ago. She has now returned to us from France." Everyone clapped for her and someone in the back whistled. "It is now Bonnie's first dinner since she was eleven. She better not have ordered anything French. Also, I must inform that the bartender has been fired. There is no more tattoo artist bartender. I'll still be here for problems and everything but Bonnie and Fish have agreed that the name should go. So it's back to just St. Jimmy. That's it from me, except that I would like a copy of Toilet's license. Does anyone have any topics they would like to bring up?"

Fish stood when no one else seemed to have anything. "I would like to make a toast, now that we all have our non-alcoholic drinks." Harry sat down and lifted his glass as Fish held up his. "To St. Jimmy. Our 'High-Overlord," he said sarcastically. Everyone laughed and it caused Harry to crack a smile and shake his head. "I toast to him for having us all here together as friends for had he not, I'm sure we all would have lost touch years ago. Also, for him being so giving to us. For giving up his life, love of art, and most likely his sanity so he can save us all from the power of Dark Magic, as you all know what I mean. To St. Jimmy, may he soon get married to a woman who will convince him he really can't die at the hands of Voldemort. Why? Because good will always triumph over evil. To St. Jimmy."

Everyone rose their glasses. "To St. Jimmy," the room recited before drinking to him.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

When dinner had ended they all took their rides to Bonnie's house. They headed inside to the ballroom where her butler had laid the floor with something that seemed to be a huge mattress that covered the entire floor. And had also laid it with a large cozy warm cover over it and there were blankets lying randomly around the floor. With a wave of her wand Bonnie had everyone easily changed into their pajamas. They all went over to a blanket and started to get comfy while still talking to friends. It was like a big sleepover. You didn't have to go home that night and you didn't have to go to sleep.

Bonnie sat down on a blanket beside Hanna, who was sleeping with Fish this year, last year it was Dig. She was basically the slut of the group. The only one she had yet to date was St. Jimmy because he was a pure soul. Fish had his arms wrapped around her while he was looking around the room and yelling to old buddies he hadn't talked to at the restaurant enough yet.

Hanna looked like a slut. She tried the whole punk thing (or was still trying) but she just came out looking really dirty and slightly Goth. She had streaks of red in her hair, big teeth that weren't big enough to make her unattractive. Her hair was black, slightly ratty. And she wore too much black eye shadow/ eyeliner whether she put it on the right way or not. She also wore those baggy pants with the hooks and high-tops because it was the only thing she could put into her outfit she knew was certainly punk. She didn't really try to be herself like Punk indicated that you should, she just took bits and pieces of other people's personalities and made them into one big ball of crap to call her own, which actually could have been her personality. Plus she had a nose piercing that was small and looked like she had got food or something stuck there. Bonnie, being the first of the rebel girls in this group, didn't like her very much. But even being the little, nasty, un-social butterfly that she was; she was determined to be friends with someone, or hate their guts. So far, it was the latter.

"Hi Bonnie," she said in her strange sound that, for some reason, most guys found sexy. Hanna was staring her down.

"Hi Hanna," Bonnie said softly, not nervous, just slightly regretting sitting beside Hanna.

"Having fun with St. Jimmy?" she asked.

"Sure. You know this is a group gathering. I didn't just spend all my time with him."

"I'm sure you wanted to though."

Fish then came back over and wrapped his arms around her and looked at Bonnie, Hanna didn't loose her stare.

"Hey Bonnie. Nice concert huh?" Fish asked.

"Yeah, it was great." The lights then went out in the ballroom. Fish and Hanna laid down together and Bonnie laid down as well, facing Hanna again in the process.

Harry was walking down the middle of the room making sure everyone had a blanket and stuff.

Hanna looked over at Bonnie and smiled slightly with evil eyes as though she wanted to say, "I'm sleeping with Fish (as weird as that may sound), who do you have?"

Bonnie glared at her but stopped when she felt someone lie down beside her and gently wrap their arms around her. Harry was tiredly nuzzling into Bonnie's blond curls that hung at her neck, both him and Fish oblivious to the girl's silent war. Bonnie smiled evilly back at Hanna saying silently through her expressions, "I've got St. Jimmy."

Hanna scowled at her mouthing, 'how long will that last,' and turned over to cuddle in Fish's chest. Bonnie smiled at her success and silently awarded Harry for good timing. And thanked God for him being so close. His lips were resting against her shoulder as his face was nestled into her neck as he continued to cuddle up to her, pulling the blankets over the both of them.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

The next morning, the sun began to seep through the tall windows of the library and make cracking light over the tired occupants of the room as if cursed out through the draperies. Those who had to, left early; those who had nothing to do today stayed in the room talking with other friends and eating a great breakfast served by the butler.

Bonnie was lying curled up in Harry's arms; her face nestled up to his chest. The sun was slowly hitting that part of the room, glinting off the still perfect slept curls. Her black silk pajamas made her feel like she would slide away from him but he kept a tight but gentle hold around her waist. She felt so comfy at the moment, nestling deeper into Harry's cotton shirt to try to block out the sun.

It was only seconds later that someone tapped her on the shoulder. She felt like yelling at them for ruining her peace and her finger placements over Harry's abdomen, but she didn't. She turned over gently, trying not to wake Harry and found herself looking at Sirius Black. She then looked back at Harry who was trying to get her to come closer against him so he could cuddle her.

"It's okay," Sirius quickly assured her, catching her awkward glance. "But he has to go now."

"Oh," Bonnie breathed, slightly relieved. She looked over at Harry who was trying to drag her back to him by pulling on her shirt. He was still asleep. Sirius smiled at how clingy Harry was when he couldn't help himself. He decided to help Bonnie and stepped carefully over to Harry. He carefully shook him awake and Harry let go of Bonnie's shirt as he slowly woke up.

"Harry, you're going home now. Come on," Sirius said, trying to help him up.

"It's too early, I don't want to go to work," Harry said tiredly, not entirely awake.

"Harry, come on. If I don't get you home soon your father will have my head." When Harry didn't comply he tried a different tactic. "Your mother is cooking breakfast." Harry opened his eyes and groaned.

"Fine, I'm getting up. Just let me say bye to everyone." Harry got onto his knees and stood up going across the room to say bye to some people. He kissed the girls on the cheek and shook hands with the guys, talking to them for a few seconds. He then headed back over to Fish and said bye to him and Hanna, who gave him another strange look that Harry ignored. "See you later Pet," Harry said to Bonnie.

"Bye." Harry then headed to leave with Sirius and Tonks. Sirius changed his clothes back to normal, or what Harry thought was normal dress. They took the floo back to the Potter mansion. Meanwhile, Bonnie lay back down; ready to try to go back to sleep and nestle into a pillow that smelled like Harry. She looked at the person next to her to see Hanna staring at her. Fish had gone back to sleep.

"Morning Bonnie," she said with her evil smile.

"Morning Hanna," she said back gently.

"Feel alone now that St. Jimmy's gone? I wouldn't expect any less. You're completely useless without him here."

Bonnie glared at her and moved closer to speak in a deadly whisper.

"You should try to remember that you're in my house and I can throw you out any time I want. If you keep on talking to me, I'll bring back O'l what's her name and Hell's Angel and then not even Fish will be able to protect you from me. Ask him yourself. You don't mess with me. I may have been in France for five years but don't anticipate me having lost my touch." Bonnie crawled onto her knees and stood up to walk away.

Fish rolled onto his back and Hanna turned to look at him when he spoke. "She's right you know. You don't mess with her when it comes to St. Jimmy. She's his girl. Haven't you noticed that none of the guys are allowed to talk to her as more than a friend, or without St. Jimmy there? That's his doing. He won't let anyone touch her."

Hanna rolled in to face him. "_He likes her_?"

"_Bonnie_?" he asked as if it were a joke. "Yeah. Since he was seven. His best friend. But we've always known they would end up together if Harry would get over his paranoia of 17 year-old death. If he dies, he will be offering her up to any man she wants. But while he's still here, she's completely off limits."

Hanna looked disgusted. She crawled out of Fish's arms and walked away.

"Hey, where are you going?" he yelled to her. She just kept walking. Fish rolled his eyes, shaking his head and turned back into his pillow to hide from the sun.


	13. Mrs Nent and Elle Girl Magazine

13

Mrs. Nent and the Elle Girl Magazine

It was a week before school was starting. Harry jumped down the stairs trying to get to the breakfast table with his mother before the marauders got to him and sent him outside for his morning run. He didn't get there. Just as his sanctuary came into view he was grabbed by his collar and pulled to the ground. He looked up into the faces of the three and let his head drop to the floor. "Trying to get away Harry?" James asked. "You know your mother can't save you."

"Why do you have to torture my son?" Lily asked walking up to them. "He should eat before you force him outside." She pushed James away and grabbed Harry's arm to pull him to his feet. "I'm taking Harry this morning and then you can have him." She pulled Harry along to the dining room while Harry stuck his tongue out at the others. They sighed and decided they couldn't pass up if Lily was cooking so they followed.

While sitting at the table they spoke normal breakfast chitchat. Or at least Remus, Sirius and James did. Harry looked bored while picking at his food. Usually he loved his mother's cooking but at the moment he didn't feel up to it. He hadn't talked to Bonnie since sober day and Fish seemed to be quite busy. Ron and Hermione had come over to spend time with him and see the house but other than those few days they were at Grimmuald Place snogging. Ginny was still dating Dean and was spending a lot of time in Diagon Alley and Harry's girlfriend list seemed to be running low. And not only was it boring to go the bar on your own, it was depressing and his parents wouldn't let him go. So he was now spending all of his time studying: reading up on Merlin, wandless magic. Or painting, lying on his floor blasting music, or sneaking a drink from the liquor cabinet his father didn't know he knew about. Other then that he was hanging out with his father, Sirius and Remus, whose only concern was his physical shape and how his mind worked. To put it plainly, as much as he loved to paint and be alone and even train, he was bored.

So when the fireplace exploded something interesting happened. Ron came running into the dining room and sat down beside Harry. He was breathing hard as if he had run a mile. He looked to the others who had confused and shocked faces. "Sorry for interrupting. Don't you people read the paper?" He turned back to Harry. "You have got to keep up with what people are saying about you." He smacked a paper onto the table. "I brought the rest of your breakfast for you mate," Ron smiled.

Harry gently and curiously slid the paper across the table to him. He looked at his own face staring back at him from the paper under the headline. The same picture he had let them take, sitting next to a photo of Draco Malfoy. He read the headline aloud. "Witch Weekly's Hottest Bachelors," he said, confused and not believing what he saw. Everyone was quickly huddled around Harry.

_"'It is once again that time of the year where Witch Weekly chooses the most available and hottest young men in the wizarding world to be Hottest Bachelor of the Year. This year, after a summer poll, we have collected most votes for Mr. Draco Lucius Malfoy and Mr. Harry James Potter. This is going to be an exciting contest. Now we ask everyone to start voting now, on which young man will win the contest. The winner of the contest will receive 1000 galleons (though we doubt that either man needs it) and will get a photo shoot in the magazine, along with a whole line of Zonko products and Honeyduke's best candy. To feed the last bit of child in them. We will also be paying for every last bit of their debut ball. Now we ask all friends to participate in the voting, even young Ms. Hermione Granger and Ms. Ginerva Weasley. And since she's recently been introduced in the news, we suggest that Ms. Bonnevily McNeal also vote. If you happen to see either of these young men make sure to capture a picture and send it in since Mr. Potter seems to be reluctant for pictures. Keep reading for updates._

_Rita Skeeter"_

Harry let his head drop onto the paper after he finished reading. "Oh, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die," he moaned to the table. "Bonnie's going to kill me, Draco is going to make sure he milks this for all it's worth, and the paparazzi is going to go crazy. Ron's going to make me eat the paper and Hanna's going to be on me like a slut on Wednesday. No, no, no, no, no," he said banging his head against the table with each "no".

James grabbed the neck of Harry's shirt to stop him. "Harry, this isn't that bad. I was in this competition to."

"Oh Lord," Harry said dropping his head into his arms as they folded on the table.

James turned to the others. "Why is that a bad thing?" Lily came over and sat down in front of Harry.

"Harry, I promise not to vote for you," she said with a smile.

Harry smiled looking up at her. "Really?" Lily nodded. "Thanks." He turned to the other three. "Are mothers allowed to vote?" They nodded. "That's disgusting."

"Are you going to eat the paper?" Ron asked. Then the fireplace exploded again. Fish came running into the room. He tripped on the rug, then got up and continued, throwing himself at the table. He threw a thick magazine at the table.

"Not again," Harry cried. "Fish, we already saw "Witch Weekly.""

"This is not Witch Weekly Harry. This is Elle Girl magazine. Bonnie would have given it to you but she's getting papers together to sue "Witch Weekly" for causing you mental breakdown and using her first name, incorrectly by the way, without her consent." Harry turned to the page Fish said to find another picture of himself he didn't remember having taken. He was sitting against his big black motorcycle reading a large tomb of a book wearing his jeans and a black T-shirt that showed his eight-pack underneath. "Where in bloody hell did they get this picture? I can remember a time this summer when I had time to bond with my motorcycle while reading a large book," Harry said outraged. He read the headline. "Harry Potter. New Global Hottie.

_Status: single_

_Age: 16_

_Hello everyone, it is a strange article we have here. This young man, Mr. Harry James Potter, living in cheery old England, has been talked about more than probably even he knows. Our undercover reporter had gone to England this summer to meet with a French model that we were going to put on this page. But when she met up with young Mr. Potter, she ditched the model, guessing that her publicist wouldn't be angry. According to her, Mr. Potter was known by two names, least popular as the Bartender. A man of 18 whom works at a tattoo parlor and gives people advice on their lives. "And does a very good job of it," I quote. The most known name, that came to life at the young age of four at his home on Privet Drive, the name St. Jimmy, was given to him by many of his young friends. With no connection to the song by Green Day, this name was given to him on account of the fact that Mr. Harry Potter is very drawn into his religion._

_Mr. Potter grew up with his aunt and uncle in Surrey on Privet Drive. Mr. Potter has a large reputation that has now spread over the oceans thanks to a young lady friend that also lives in the large suburb. Apparently, thanks to some inside information, Mr. Potter is also a young prodigy for art and the piano. He has, to this day, a piece of work up in a British museum. (For more information look to index of magazine.) He also loves his motorcycle and reading and is very protective of his friends. Most of which are sent to a school titled, "St. Brutis's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys" each year after summer vacation. Mr. Potter's school was not of resource, sadly._

_To other news, Mr. Potter is no longer living on Privet Drive but his life seems to be in shambles, as we can't collect any more information about him. He still lives in England and our young informant gives her last quote as this, "track me down and I'll give you his cell number. But his best friend won't give you a chance to get near him." Ms. Bonnie McNeal, a young Irish girl, happens to be Mr. Potter's best friend and perhaps love interest. Though our undercover reporter says that he had no issues with cheating on her or any girlfriends he may have had. But he's totally hot isn't he?" Harry looked up with a slightly disgusted and confused face._

_"My life is in shambles and my love interest is Bonnie? Where do they get this crap? And who told them this stuff."_

"Hanna."

"That bitch!"

"St. Jimmy, it's not done. Look at the name of the undercover reporter?" Fish said, almost laughing.

Harry looked down at the names. "Teresa Haper. UC: Angelina _Nent_." Harry gagged on his breathing. He put his hand over his mouth and shoved his chair back. "I think I'm going to be sick," he said, running from the room. Fish fell over on the floor laughing hysterically.

"Don't worry St. Jimmy. We'll shave Hanna's head for this. A new look will be good for her," Fish yelled between laughs. When he got back up a few minutes later, Harry was running into the room and tackled him back onto the ground. "Jimmy stop. I didn't do it I swear. It was all Hanna and her stupid muggle friend."

"You swear?" Harry asked.

"I swear." Harry sighed and got off the floor not bothering to help Fish up.

"Ron give me the paper. I'll eat while I'm shaving Hanna's head."

"Harry, you need to calm down," Sirius said. "This isn't that bad. You're globally famous now."

"I think I'm hyperventilating. Is the room getting smaller? Why does everything feel so heavy? I don't feel so good again. I wanna throw up again. I can't walk to the loo." After his babbling Harry suddenly dropped hard to the floor.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\

Harry knew he wasn't in the dining room anymore. But his head hurt from the fall and he heard voices yelling around him.

"What were you thinking?"

"I didn't know he would react like that?"

"Hanna! He passed out!"

"How was I supposed to know he would do that?"

"This is St. Jimmy. He has a fear of publicity! Where have you been for the last 12 years?"

"I don't know Fish. But he's my friend too and I'm getting tired of him sitting around watching Bonnie and not doing anything. And hitting on every other girl but me."

"You're just trying to get back at him because he wouldn't go out with you. He wouldn't because all you wanted was sex. And he wasn't going to give you any. So then you go ahead and help along with the stupid reporters by giving them pictures and background information. That's not how you treat friends. Especially St. Jimmy."

"Well maybe I was drunk that day or something. It's his fault he made out with the stupid women."

"That's it. You can go now. I'll tell you what St. Jimmy's answer is when he wakes up."

"Fine!"

"Oh, and Hanna," said a new voice, "even if he doesn't discard you from the group, I have. Don't ever talk to me again."

"I never liked you anyway."

"Hanna," Harry said, sitting up so everyone knew he was awake. Hanna looked at him, like everyone else. "I'm not discarding you from the group. I don't even live in the sub anymore but you'll have a very hard time getting rid of me. But I won't let go of you. But I'm still disappointed and I don't want to talk to you for a while. And the next time I'm in an issue to Elle Girl and they have a secret informant from England, I'm not letting you off."

"Thank you," Hanna said. "I'm really sorry."

"I'm sure." He turned to Ron. "I'll eat my article now." Ron smiled and handed him the paper as Fish led Hanna out of the room and closed the door. "I see you and Hermione left your room long enough to visit me?" Harry said, ripping a piece of paper and stuffing it in his mouth.

"Ha ha. That's not what we've been doing? We've been trying to get rid of Fred and George, who are using everyone as testers for their new products."

"Well you could have gotten away from them by coming over here," Harry said.

"Well we thought maybe you would want to spend more time with your family. You'll get to talk to us all year."

"I'll get to talk to Sirius and Remus all year to. They'll be following me around while I'm at school. I don't know why my father wouldn't be doing the same. He seems reluctant to leave me alone. But fainting on the really hard dining room floor got me out of my morning workout. Praise the Lord."

"Yeah what is it with the "morning workout?"" Hermione asked.

"Lying in bed for a week gaining so much power in my "tiny 16-year-old body" apparently isn't healthy. So I'll have to continue this. Even while at school. I'm going to end up like Victor Krum, who wasn't even voted hottest Bachelor of the Year. He was just famous. Now I'm both."

"How does this make you like Victor Krum then?"

"Everyone will be following me around. I'll even have my own personal bodyguards. How much more attention can you bring to yourself without doing anything at all?"

"Oh I don't know Harry," Ron said. "You seem to be a master at this. I'm sure you could find a way to be way more famous without doing much. Maybe if you are really lucky, Voldemort will drop dead by tripping over his own feet. If you're right, they'll probably thank you for that to, saying that you did it."

"Oh, we can only hope Ron."

"How's your paper?" Bonnie asked.

"Delicious," Harry said, ripping off Malfoy's head. "It's disgusting to be voted in the same competition as Draco Malfoy. But Bonnie, what have you been doing that you couldn't come visit me?"

"I have other things to do that don't involve you Harry," Bonnie said looking away.

"You do?"

"Yes, what I do in my spare time is none of your business." Harry watched her for a second.

"Fish!" he yelled.

"Harry don't. It's none of your business."

"It's always my business."

"Well if you must know, I have been fighting with your headmaster because for some odd reason he would like me to stick out like a sore thumb wearing my Beauxbatons uniform for the first night so that everyone knows I am an exchange student."

"You had a Beauxbatons uniform?" Harry asked with a smile.

"That's the school I went to!"

"So you saw Fluer Decluer? Every day?"

"The little French bitch. The fat cow of the French Veela kingdom. When she left for the tournament, while everyone else was betting for her to win, I was praying to God to tell Harry to make sure she _died_ in the tournament."

"I guess he hit the wrong one."

"Oh but she was a bitch. "Oh hello Bonnie. How are you this morning? I love your hair."

"She sounds nice," Ginny said carefully.

"Well you'd think that wouldn't you? But when you wake up with a curling iron stuck in your hair and the words curly sue written across your forehead and the first person to smile when you walk into the common room is Fluer Decluer you know she is pure evil. I jumped at her and I was banned from nice world at Beauxbatons. And it was all her fault. That was in my first year. I was 11; she was 15, yet she felt threatened by me just because I had stupid perfect curls. I wake up like this every morning and they hated me for it."

"They called you Curly Sue?" Harry asked.

"For five long years. That is when they talked to me. Girl world is evil and cruel."

"I can't believe they called you Curly Sue?"

"Don't get me wrong. I did my share of backwash. I hawked a loogee in her perfect hair, her morning drink, her morning breakfast, and her afternoon tea. I spit olives at the back of her head, kicked her under the desk, sent her against the wall and crushed her with the bed. I left her like that for hours. I ruined her potions so that they would turn her hair different colors. Got her teeth to turn black. Gave her a big nose. Posted pictures of the fat her all over the school―"

"The fat her?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yeah. Weren't you listening? Fat cow of the French Veela Kingdom. When she was 11 and 12 she wasn't as pretty as you saw her. She was big and ugly but irresistible because she was half Veela. Her powers were not enough to overcome a lot of the boys. We got to visit with the Durmstrang boys. Ooh was she jealous when I came. I was shoved into a broom closet for the entire night."

"I can't imagine Fluer Decluer as fat," Ginny said.

"Believe it. I hope she dies one day. A very fat old Veela with no happy memories because of all the things she did to me."

"Sounds like you did more to her," Harry laughed.

"She tried to straighten my hair in my sleep. She tried to cut it off in my sleep. She glued me to the wall of the common room over the fireplace and made me sing 'I'm a little tea pot'. She gave me a Mohawk and posted all over that my mother was sleeping with one of the professors. As an April Fool's joke she put me in bed with one of the professors and took a picture to make it seem like I was sleeping with a teacher for good grades. She was a grade A _bitch _and she deserved to _die_ for what she did."

"That's really mean," Ginny said sadly. Bonnie almost had tears in her eyes.

"Well, we can give her hell for you. She's coming over sometime this week. Bill's getting married to her," Ron said carefully.

"I wish you good luck. And Ginny, I would stay away. You have nice hair, watch it closely."

"Well I don't think you look like Curly Sue," Harry said, pulling her close to hug her and put his chin on her shoulder. "If anything it's Gidget but your hair is longer."

"Thank you. I like Gidget better."

"Me to," Hermione said.

"Muggle borns are so cool. They know everything," Bonnie smiled. "Having half of both worlds is the best. You have the natural thought to survive without a wand. Unlike our pureblood friends," she said jokingly to Ginny and Ron.

"Ha ha," Ron said. "Our father studies muggles because we aren't part anything."

"My mother studies muggles too," Bonnie said. "She tries to fix their minds when they're depressed or something. She works for wizards too."

"She's a therapist?" Hermione asked.

"That's one way of putting it. She is a therapist, but she should probably be put into a psyche ward. She has this whole aura thing and she enters your soul to search through your mind to find the core of the devil that controls you," she finished in a very Trelawney like tone.

"Sounds kind of creepy," Ginny said.

"My mother isn't creepy. She's just naturally extra insane."

"That's a good way to put it," Harry said, eating another part of his paper.

For the rest of the day the group bonded and everyone got a lot closer to Bonnie and became good friends. They weren't so out of the loop like they were when Harry knew every small thing about her and they knew nothing. So by the lunch they were all invited to stay. Though the three marauders didn't look very pleased that Harry had found his way out of training.


	14. I'm Not As Innocent As I Look In This Dr

14

I'm Not As Innocent As I Look In This Dress

Harry packed up all of his things in his trunk. Luckily he had gotten a new one while they were shopping at Diagon Alley because he found he had way too much stuff this year. He was taking a few sketchbooks with him along with all his books, which he took extra of from the house, uniforms, a training uniform that he had gotten when he started, and muggle clothes for weekends. With all of that and a few extra things his trunk would hardly shut, even though it was huge.

"Harry, are you almost finished?" James yelled making his way to Harry's room. "We have to leave if you want to be there on time."

"It won't shut," Harry said, just as it shut closed. "Oh good," Harry sighed. He then dragged it to the door where his father took it, lifting it with a flick of his wand. They all, to Harry's surprise, took a limo to King's Cross. "Are we really that rich that we take limo's everywhere?" Harry asked, getting his hand slapped away from the liquor cabinet by his mother.

"We don't take one everywhere. Just places we have to go to by car. Most rich pureblood families do. I always took a limo to King's Cross. Sirius and Remus came with me because we went by ourselves and we didn't get our hands slapped away from the liquor."

"Is anyone going to drink the liquor? Why is there any in here?"

"Because we love to tempt you and watch you squirm," Remus said, smiling evilly. Harry sighed and leaned against the door.

"This is a nice limo," he observed to himself. "Do the Malfoys take a limo to King's Cross?"

"Yes they do. They use what money they have left after bribing the Minister to make themselves look like they're still rich," James said. "Although so do the Chang's. They're a nice family."

"I wonder if Bonnie does. Though, if she can, she'll probably take the family car, which looks like a limo." He then soaked in what his father had said. "The Chang's?"

"Oh yes. Very nice family. We used to have Christmas together all the time. Sirius almost dated one of them seriously. Sadly he tried to get into her pants and she slapped him and married… someone else."

"Harry tried to get into a Chang's pants last year!" Sirius pointed out, to get conversation off of him.

"I did not!" Harry said exasperatedly. "I went on a date with Cho Chang. She kept talking about Cedric and there were people snogging all over the place, I was only fifteen and she was a year older. I had never dated a girl before, what did she want out of me. It was awkward. But I didn't try to get into her pants. I didn't get the chance to. She yelled at me for liking Hermione and left while everyone stared accusingly at me. It was awful."

"You seem better at it now. You can date a Chang! It would be beautiful," Lily said. "They're very nice. I went to a Christmas with your father one-year, and met them. Very nice girls."

"That's because you haven't met the crazy ones," Sirius mumbled. Remus laughed quietly and Sirius punched him in the shoulder to shut him up. The limo stopped and Harry was forced to wait until someone opened the door till he could get out. His trunk was set on the sidewalk on a trolley for him. He grabbed it as the others got out of the limo. His father took his mother's hand and gracefully helped her out of the car. The driver closed the door and stood in front of it to wait for them to return.

Harry was already making his way in and they had to hurry to catch up to him. He got onto the platform and Sirius helped him load his trunk onto the train. Harry looked around the platform. Hardly anyone was here. Mainly a group of Slytherins.

"Limos get here faster then cars," Sirius said to him quietly. "Mostly purebloods get here early."

"Great," Harry said, sliding down onto the floor. The room was empty and Harry tried to hide himself amid the black robes as he saw Draco Malfoy across the room talking to other Slytherins. Then he saw the color blue and blond hair. He quickly got up, seeing Bonnie in her old uniform. He quietly walked up behind her as she went over to the train. She suddenly stopped and so did Harry. She took off her hat and quickly whacked him with it. She turned around.

"Oh, sorry Harry," she said. Harry rubbed his head.

"That's okay," Harry said. "I―"

"Don't you say a damn word, Potter. If you do, you'll get your bloody death wish a year early. Now help me with my trunk," she said, replacing her hat.

"Yes miss," Harry smiled. He then loaded her trunk into the storage rack. "Jeez Bonnie, what are you taking with you?"

"Potions," she said easily.

"You know, I just wanted to say that I love your hat," Harry smiled.

"You like it so much, why don't you wear it?" she asked slapping the hat on his head and stepping her heal on his toe.

" Oww…. I think I look lovely in your hat." Bonnie took it back.

"I look prettier. Though it does make my curls look like Curly Sue because it gives me real hat hair. I hate this hat," she said evilly, looking up at it.

"You didn't have to wear it. I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't have cared if you wore the outfit or not."

"Oh but I love the trickery I get out of it. I get to wear my cute little curls, the sweet hat, the little blue dress, and then bat my eyelashes. And the first boy to whistle gets a hard smack in the head."

"You're so devilish."

"I know St. Jimmy. I know," she smiled. "Why are we here so early? I should have left later."

"No you shouldn't have. I would still be sitting here by myself with the Slytherins."

"Potter," drawled a voice from the side. They both looked over to see Draco Malfoy and his cronies. "Have a new friend here. A, very, pretty one might I add. Here from Beauxbatons Miss …?" he asked, holding out his hand.

"McNeal," Bonnie said about to give him her white-gloved hand. Harry grabbed her hand first.

"Yeah, it's nice you're trying to be human Malfoy but don't test your experiment on any of my friends, alright?" Harry asked.

"Little protective are we? I know you can't be dating; you would never be able to get anyone this beautiful Potter. Especially not a Beauxbatons girl. What are we doing going to Hogwarts Miss McNeal? And we shouldn't be nearby Potter here. He's bad taste."

"I quite enjoy Mr. Potter's company," Bonnie said daintily, as if the girl's etiquette school, Beauxbatons, had actually done something for her. Draco must have been convinced. He smiled flirtingly with her.

"I'm sure you would enjoy my company much more. Why don't you join me and my friends?"

"I don't think so. I'll just stay here. But thank you for your offer."

Draco smiled. "I'm sure you'll change your mind. Nice lip ring Potter." He and his cronies walked away laughing.

"That was weird," Harry said. He looked over at Bonnie who was still watching Draco walk away. "Bonnie?" he questioned. "Bonnie!"

"What?" she asked, exasperatedly, looking back at him. "Come on, we'll go say hello to your parents." She grabbed hold of Harry's wrist and pulled him along as he stared at her shocked. "Hi Mrs. Potter," Bonnie greeted once they got up to them.

"Hi. I love being called Mrs. Potter. It doesn't happen often enough. I know too many people," Lily said happily, pulling Bonnie into a hug. "You look very cute in your uniform."

"Oh, thanks," she said looking down at it. "I hate it. But it does give everyone else a sense of security. They have no idea what they're in for."

Lily laughed as they started conversation about school.

James looked at Harry who was shaking his head and looked confused. "You okay Buddy?"

"Draco Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Was he hitting on your girl Harry?" Sirius asked quietly.

"She's my best friend. I'm not giving her to the disgusting little prick."

"Whatever you say." Harry looked back at Draco who smiled evilly at him. Harry looked away and looked at the ground. He stomped his foot on the stone and a sketchbook appeared. Harry fell down onto the floor and made a pencil come up in his hand.

"Wanna be like Da Vinci gotta make up some bloody war plans," Harry said quietly to himself.

When Ron and Hermione got there it was time to get on the train. Harry gave his mother a hug and his father pulled him into one as well. "I'll see you later," he said mysteriously. He was then pulled along by Sirius and Remus who shoved him along as a few reporters were getting through the entrance.

"Hey Sirius, what did dad mean when he said he would see me later?" Harry asked as Sirius and Remus followed him to a compartment.

"Nothing Harry. You know your father, he's just weird," Sirius said, putting his hands on Harry's shoulders and leading him through the hall behind his friends. Ron opened an empty compartment and walked in. When Harry got up to the door he turned to Sirius. "You're lying right?"

"You'll find out later now won't you?" Sirius smiled and closed the door.

"How rude." Harry said to the door. He turned around and sat down next to Bonnie watching Sirius and Remus stand outside the door. "Bonnie, what was with the look you were giving Malfoy?" Harry asked her changing topic.

"What look?" Bonnie asked innocently, as Ron and Hermione and Ginny watched them like a tennis tournament.

"That look you gave him."

"What look?"

"You know what look I'm talking about?"

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No, I don't."

"The look that says 'I'm not kidding when I say I'm flattered.' You don't give Draco Malfoy that look."

"I did not look at him that way."

"Yes you did. Right as you were about to let him touch your hand."

"Please Harry, I'm wearing a glove."

"And then you watched him as he was walking away."

"You're taking this way out of proportion Harry. I was not checking out Draco Malfoy. I was being nice. And besides, it's none of your business if I want to check someone out anyway. Just like it wasn't your business to beat up Rick when he smiled at me."

"He wasn't looking at you the right way. And you're not supposed to be nice to Draco Malfoy anyway. He's evil and a death eater and you're supposed to bat your eyelashes and hit him, not bat your eyelashes and call me Mr. Potter like you don't know me."

"Stop it Harry. You know I wasn't," Bonnie said.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Harry stomped his foot on the floor and a sketchbook flew out of the floor and into his hand. Harry busied himself with his book ignoring Bonnie. She sighed and rolled her eyes taking off her hat.

Hermione rested her head on Ron's shoulder and looked up at him. "Should be a fun trip."

Ron smiled and kissed her lips. "Oh yeah."

Nam crawled out of Harry's pocket and onto the seat between him and Bonnie while Venus crawled out of Bonnie's bag and onto the seat beside him. They both began talking in a quiet language while playing something that looked like patty-cake.

Bonnie and Harry ignored each other for the rest of the trip and there were no interruptions from anyone outside the compartment thanks to Sirius and Remus who were having fun scaring wandering first years back into their compartments.

When the train stopped they all stood and tried to head out but Sirius opened the door and stepped in with Remus closing the door behind him. "Um, yeah," Sirius began, "Harry you're going to have to stay in here till the crowd is forced to leave. Draco is being kept in his compartment as well. Girls have gone psycho this year." He looked behind him as if they would rampage through the door any moment.

"But how will we get up to the castle?" Harry asked.

"You and Draco will have private carriages coming after the others have taken off. Surprisingly, he is almost just as popular as you are," Remus said.

"Well that's just great," Harry said, slumping back into his seat. "By the way, Bonnie I'm sorry for being angry at you for flirting with Draco Malfoy. It is, as I have been told many times before but never listened to, none of my business who you date, flirt with, or happen to fancy. And I am not to beat up anyone who looks at you funny," Harry said, as if it were rehearsed.

Bonnie sat down next to him. "Wow, five years of memorization practices with Fish really helped," she said. Harry looked at her expecting a different answer. "Oh yes, and I promise to stop looking at greasy slime balls who are not pre approved by the Suburban Children of "Sub Gossip Parents". And … I will not tend to have wandering eyes for those in the group unless it is approved by said children and deny any fact that I ever had any feelings whatsoever for Toilet Bishop," she recited. They both nodded their heads once looking at the floor and the compartment went silent.

"When do you two make up these things?" Sirius asked.

Harry looked up at him. "Mine was made up after I punched out a guy walking down our street for smiling at Bonnie. We were nine. And hers was made up right after. Fish made them up. Everyone tends to have their own little rule because he found himself very bored at school that year and made up stuff for our "group", I guess."

"You just get weirder everyday," Sirius sighed.

"This is past stuff. So it wasn't today that I got weirder, if anything I've gotten less weird. Wouldn't you say Bonnie?" he asked looking at her.

"Not truthfully," she said. There was a knock on the door and Sirius looked through the window before sliding it open. Tonks stood there to tell them that they could now leave for their carriage. Harry stood again and followed Sirius out of the compartment. Draco was ahead of them leaving the train.

Once off the train, Tonks turned to them again. "Your things have already been taken up to the school and the sorting is just starting to begin. Bonnie, you'll be staying in the Entrance Hall till all of the first years are sorted and then you'll be sorted afterward. The rest of you will continue to take your seats at the Gryffindor table. Sirius and Remus will stay out in the Entrance Hall with you while you wait." They all nodded and followed her to the carriage. Sirius stood at the door as they all sat down. "We'll meet you up at the entrance." Then he shut the door and the threstrals took off.

Bonnie groaned and leaned against the wall of the carriage. "Now I'll have to walk in front of everyone up to the stand wearing my bright blue outfit looking like Fluer with her big smile."

"Don't worry Pet. Everything will be fine. It will be over before you know it and you'll be joining us at the Gryffindor table."

"What if I get into Slytherin?"

"You won't get into Slytherin. If I can talk the hat out of putting me in Slytherin I'm sure you can to."

\-\

Bonnie stood behind the entrance door with Sirius and Remus waiting for Dumbledore to finish his introduction speech. She could hear him speaking through the door. "We have a new student this year. An exchange student from the girl's school, Beauxbatons. She is entering her sixth year and I hope that all of you will give her a warm welcome. Please welcome our new student Miss Bonnie McNeal." Bonnie thanked God that he didn't use her real name but she pleaded for him to not make her go out there.

Remus and Sirius opened the door and led her through. Bonnie put on her large fake smile and walked as they taught you at school, without the sigh and birds, that made boys drool. Some of them still did. Sirius and Remus had stopped at the door and stood to each side. Bonnie made her way up to the stool and removed her blue hat and sat down setting it gently on her lap while McGonnagal set the large black one atop her head.

"Ahh, Miss McNeal. Mr. Potter's head had many thoughts of you. I see you have many of him as well. But enough of that. What house to put you in? I see you are very smart, as Mr. Potter himself is, but I could not put you in Ravenclaw. I think you're a bit too rebellious and disorderly for them. Hufflepuff is not right. And as Slytherin plainly has gone to the dogs and since I feel it my place to protect my students from gaining a bad head I'll be sending you to GRYFFINDOR!" Bonnie smiled a real smile this time and hopped off the stool. The Gryffindor table was cheering loudly for her and Bonnie walked over to them and sat down beside Harry who pulled her into a hug.

"Now that we have everyone to their houses," Dumbledore continued, "let me introduce a few people." Harry directed Bonnie's attention to the staff table and she quickly noticed that Harry's father was sitting there, watching Bonnie's mother with curious eyes. Bonnie smiled and giggled quietly in Harry's ear. "We have two new teachers this year. First we have Professor McNeal, who will be taking up the Astronomy position as Professor Sinistra has decided to retire." Bonnie's mother stood, smiled like she had learned in Ireland prep schools, and sat back down as everyone clapped politely. "And fortunately we won't be taking any Ministry staff this year as Professor Potter has graciously accepted to take the jinxed position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." James stood and made a dramatic bow as the Gryffindor table applauded the loudest. The two Weasley twins whistled from the back of the room as they had come for the dinner just to see their hero's together back in Hogwarts. Dumbledore raised his hands for quiet. "And the two men at the back of the room, Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin, may be seen in some of your classes, wandering around the halls, and standing at the back of the room during every meal. No one is to bother them or ask questions as to why they are here."

"Well that's not nice Professor," Sirius said. "We love a good bother. Give's us a decent chance to pick on the poor children while they're close enough."

Dumbledore smiled. "Alright. You are asked only to bother them at your own risk. Now I'm sure you're all hungry so let's tuck in." Food appeared before them on the table. Harry looked up at Remus and Sirius who were now standing closer chatting with each other against the wall. Harry's father up at the staff table was having a chat with McGonnagal. Bonnie's mother had found a friend in Professor Trelawney. Harry found this hilarious but hid his laughs. He looked around the hall while pretending to eat. He noticed some of the girls watching him but quickly turned away when he saw them. One in particular was Cho.

Cho smiled at him and then turned back to her friends. One of her friends leaned into the table to talk to her. "Merlin Cho. You break up with him one year and he comes back the next looking totally hottie. What did you do to him?"

"I don't know," Cho said, watching Harry's tongue touch the stud in his lip to taste the metal. "I should have never let him go like that."

"Yeah," breathed the girl beside her. "Look what you could have now. Hottest Bachelor of the Year."

Cho looked over at him again. "I can gain it back."

\-\

When dinner was finished Cho made a quick move to catch Harry before he left. Hermione and Ron were leading the first years to the tower. Cho caught up with him as he was heading over to Sirius and Remus.

"Hey Harry," she said carefully, a bit nervous. He turned around and looked at her.

"Hey Cho."

"Can I talk to you for a second?" she asked.

"Uh, sure." Harry turned to Bonnie and Ginny.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. Come on Ginny. This blue is making my eyes hurt." She grabbed Ginny's wrist and they both skipped out of the hall. And Bonnie claims she's not a social butterfly, Harry thought. He walked away from Sirius and Remus who sighed, rolled their eyes and leaned back against the wall. Harry slid a hand through his hair as he walked toward her making Cho gulp nervously.

"Hi," Cho began, nervously. "Uh, I just wanted to apologize about last year. The date didn't exactly go as I planned. I guess maybe it was a little soon, but I really liked you. I'm just really sorry for yelling at you and for ruining our date."

"That's alright. I understand. I was saying all the wrong things. I guess neither of us were really sending out what we were going for."

"Well I was wondering if maybe we could have another go. Try again?" Cho asked, hopefully.

"That would be nice," Harry said calmly, gently guiding her hair behind her ear. Cho's heart was racing at the contact. "Hogsmeade this weekend?" he asked, sliding his fingers slowly down the edge of her hair. Cho could only nod, mesmerized by the soothing, hidden seductiveness in the tone of his voice. "Good. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight," he said, before gently kissing her cheek and turning to walk away. Sirius and Remus ended their conversation and followed him out.

Cho's friends gathered around her and stared at her admirably. "Wow, you got him."

Cho let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "I have never been so turned on in all my life and all he did was touch my hair. I think I swallowed a love potion." Cho's friends laughed as they walked out of the hall with her.

\-\

"Have a date already Harry?" Sirius asked as they made their way out of the Hall and up to Gryffindor tower.

"Yeah, Cho Chang." Once they got up to the tower Harry turned to them. "Are you coming in?"

"No. We're going to raid the kitchen now and then go bother your dad. We'll be at the Great Hall in the morning."

"Oh. Well, tell my dad I said congratulations and I look forward to seeing him play professor."

"Sure. Sleep well. I hope you wake up happy now that you don't have weekday training." Then they both walked off and Harry headed in through the portrait hole

"How did your conversation with Cho Chang go?" Ron asked as he came over to them by the fire and slumped in his chair. Bonnie and Ginny were sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace; Bonnie was braiding Ginny's hair while Ginny broke off the head of a chocolate frog and handed it to her. Ron and Hermione were sitting on the couch together.

"Why does this spot always seem to be reserved for us?" Harry asked, distracted by the flames.

"Because everyone knows this is the spot where we formulate plans for saving Hogwarts and people think it's cursed unless we sit here," Ron said sarcastically. "I don't know. What happened with you and Cho?"

Bonnie perked up her ears but didn't look away from Ginny's hair.

"She wanted to try dating again. We're going on a date this weekend."

"That was fast," Hermione said.

"Yeah, well, she asked first. I was planning on being single for a little bit. Oh well." He turned to Bonnie who had left behind her bright blue dress and hat to curl next to the fire, with her knees folded and her feet back, wearing a black dress, black knee socks, and a large round black hat. "Get out of the blue dress fast enough Pet?"

"Me and Ginny are mourning its death. It's burning to ash in the flames as we speak."

"You threw your dress in the fire?"

"Yes. Now we're waiting for some kind of, provoked, spirit of Beauxbatons, that looked strangely like Fluer in my imagination, to come tell us that you can't burn your dress because it's part of you now. I feel they did nothing to make me more lady-like, I don't know any better then to throw my dress into the fire."

"This is true."

"I am finally free from the insanity that is well mannered young women. Well mannered girls suck," she said, spitting the last word. Harry smiled at her and curled up in his chair watching how nice the night was. His friends sitting around the fire together. Only problem with the picture was that Harry wished he could pull Bonnie away from Ginny's braids and onto his lap to kiss her.

\-\

The next morning Harry walked into the Great Hall alone. Ron had given up on trying to wake him. Harry's hair was extra messy, his shirt was untucked, his sleeves pulled up slightly, and his robes were hanging off his shoulder. He walked over to the table and sat down beside Ron.

"Sleep well?" Hermione asked.

"Lovely, why do you ask?" Harry asked.

"You look a bit… disheveled."

"I didn't feel like trying very hard this morning."

"Hi Harry." Harry looked over to see Cho sitting down on his other side.

"Oh, hi Cho," Harry greeted, kissing her cheek. Cho smiled more brightly. "Looking forward to the first day of your last year of school."

"Oh, yeah. I guess. I was talking to my head of house this morning and I got Quidditch captain. Isn't that great? I can't wait to train everyone to beat your little arse on the field."

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked, breathing a laugh.

"Yeah. Who's your captain?"

"I don't know. Alicia isn't here so…"

McGonnagal set an envelope in front of him along with his timetable. "Hmm," Harry hummed fingering the envelope. He opened it and read:

To Mr. Harry Potter,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been chosen to be the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. And I would not try to get out of it because I will not listen to a word you have to say against my decision. I have gotten used to the trophy in my office and I am trusting you to keep it there.

Deputy Headmistress

Minerva McGonnagal

Harry looked up at Ron. "You're under my control now Ron," he smiled, passing him the letter. "I'm Quidditch captain now. And I have no way out of it. She's forcing me." He turned to Cho. "Guess we'll be really playing against each other now."

"Well, good for you. And good luck."

"You to." He looked at his timetable to check his classes. "Oh, it seems we'll be going to potions first with the Slytherins as tradition has it."

"Oh yeah. What classes is everyone taking anyway?" Hermione asked. "I know you and Ron didn't pass Divination."

"Mine were chosen for me," Harry sighed. "I have Battle Tactics, Curse Breaking and Defensive Magical Invention. Whatever the hell that is. They're basic pre-auror classes. Then all of the regular classes."

"Why are you taking pre-auror classes in your sixth year?" Cho asked.

"Because I plan to be an auror," Harry lied.

"But you're not supposed to take these classes till your 7th year," she pointed out. "You'll be in classes with all 7th year students. I'm taking Curse Breaking."

"Oh well. I didn't plan to take them. Like I said, mine were all chosen for me." Harry looked to Ron to silently tell him to change the subject.

"Oh, so Harry. Think you'll make it as a Quidditch Captain. You haven't ridden a broom in two years. Besides those two games."

"Thanks Ron. Very reassuring. I wasn't worried enough. You will be running three laps around the pitch during our first training session."

"Yeah right. You have to find a team first. Only people you have are you, Ginny and I; everyone else is gone. "

"Goodie. I'll put together a tryout session sometime this week. That will give us enough time to train them after that."

"Good. Just don't get yourself in detention before then," Ginny laughed.

"Ha ha," Harry laughed boredly. "Who's going to give me detention? McGonnagal isn't if she wants to win, Snape won't if he doesn't want to deal with my father, never gotten in trouble in any of my other classes. And who can imagine my father giving his only son detention for disrupting class. Only people who will be getting point loss or detention in Defense this year will be the Slytherins."

"That's unfair," Cho said. They all looked at her funny. "Well it's just the same as the way Professor Snape picks on you."

"No it's not. They deserve to be picked on. We've done nothing to them."

"Harry," said a voice behind him. He turned to see Sirius. "Come on. Heading to class early."

"Ooh, I'm so excited. Potions five minutes early," Harry said sarcastically. "You all coming with me or will I have to walk alone?" Harry asked.

"We'll go," Hermione said, pulling Ron with her.

"Alright," Harry said. "Bye Cho," he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "See you in Curse Breaking."

"Bye," she smiled.

Bonnie followed them discretly glaring at Cho as she headed back to her friends. Ginny went to sit with Dean.

\-\

Bonnie sat down next to Harry at the table in the back of the room in front of her cauldron. She leaned over her cauldron and breathed in. "It's so nice to be back in a potions classroom. Stupid Beauxbatons does nothing that can ruin your outfit," she said beginning to dryly weep.

"There will be no crying over the cauldrons Ms. McNeal," Snape said walking into the room.

Bonnie quickly lifted her head. "It's just so beautiful," Bonnie said, as if she had never seen one before as she traced her finger lovingly along the edge.

"I don't want to know how all of you made it past your O.W.L's but if you can't do just as well in here as you did on your test you are not going to be staying here for very long. You will leave immediately if I find you an inadequate student… because I don't feel like dealing with stupid people." He then turned to Sirius and Remus who were smiling at him from the back of the room. "If either of you touch a cauldron, I'll quit." Sirius teasingly reaching over Harry's shoulder where they stood and went to touch the cauldron in front of Harry but Harry smacked his hand away. They were then told to start on a potion. The Misshs were sitting on their desks copying the words on the board while they started on their potion. Bonnie made an expression and squeak so eager you would think Christmas had come early. When Snape came around to look at the potions he couldn't find anything wrong with hers and actually complimented her on it.

"I don't know what you were all whining about," Bonnie said as they left the potions classroom and headed to Transfiguration. "Snape doesn't seem as bad as you all make him out to be."

"That's just because you spent half the hour worshiping your cauldron and still made a perfect dreamless sleep potion," Harry said. "He wasn't about to take points away from you."

"Snape now has a favorite student and she's in Gryffindor," Sirius laughed. Bonnie glared at him.

They all walked into Transfiguration and sat down. Sirius and Remus stood at the door scaring the students that came in afterward making the students already there laugh.

McGonnagal walked in and they quickly stood straight against the wall. She looked at them both as if she were reliving tiring memories of the two. "Please stay standing at the back of the room. Thank you." Remus and Sirius walked to the back of the room, Sirius smacking Harry's forehead just to annoy him as he went.

"Now, today we will be turning these rocks," she began, moving a rock from the floor onto her desk with her wand, "into dogs. Now lets all practice the wand movement." Sirius came up beside Harry and handed him his wand and then stood there beside him, quietly. Harry practiced the wand movement with the others and the incantation. They were all given a large rock to start with. Harry was about to use his wand but it was pulled from his hand as he lifted it.

"Hey!"

Sirius kneeled down beside him. "You have to try not using your wand. Try doing the wand movement with only your hand. And no words. Say the incantation in your head."

Harry sighed angrily. "Fine." Harry raised his hand and tried to wand movement with a wave of his fingers. He'd done wandless magic before but it was mainly tricks, simple things that didn't involve any wrist movement. He wasn't surprised when it didn't work.

"Will everyone please get back to their own work and stop staring at Mr. Potter?" McGonnagal said as she walked down the isle. Sirius glared at them and they turned back around to their own work. Harry tried again making a spark fly from the palm of his hand but it missed and hit the chalkboard causing a large hole to erupt from it. McGonnagal, staring at it with wide eyes, turned to look over at him.

"Sorry," Harry apologized. He turned back to his rock. "Stupid rock. Why won't you turn into a dog?" he said, flicking his hand at it without intent and sending a sharp green spark into the core of the rock. Harry was thrown back to the floor in his chair by the force, along with Bonnie, as the rock quickly grew to the size of Fluffy the three-headed dog and exploded, filling the room with dogs. "Oops," Harry said, sitting on the floor. The girls in the room were having a blast collecting the puppies. As McGonnagal was distracted with the fact that her room had just exploded with dogs, the girls were sitting on the floor playing with the cute puppies. Bonnie and Hermione were doing the same.

"That was good Harry," Sirius said. "Just need to tone it down a little."

Harry nodded looking around the room. "By the time the day is over there will be a hole in every classroom I enter," Harry said sadly.

"No there won't. Besides, you just made Transfiguration class more fun. Look at the cute little puppies," he said childishly, holding a little dog up to Harry before cuddling it in his arms.

"Everyone put down the puppies please!" McGonnagal yelled. "Sirius Black, put the puppy down!" Sirius pouted and put the dog on the floor. McGonnagal waved her wand and made the dogs disappear into a large rock and shrunk it. "Class is dismissed."

Harry pulled Bonnie off the floor with him and they all headed out of the room. "Sirius, why are your robes barking?" Harry asked, as they walked down the hall.

"What barking? I don't hear any barking," Sirius lied. Remus grabbed a puppy out of Sirius's pocket and held it up to him.

"That might be a source."

"Sirius, you can't keep the dog."

"Why not?" Sirius asked, pouting. "It's so cute. Look, it looks just like me," he said, holding the dog up to his face.

"Sirius," Remus began, grabbing the puppy, "It's a rock."

"Is not. He's breathing. See you can always tell when a puppy is breathing, his tongue sticks out. Oh, he's so cute," Sirius said to the dog, scratching his chin. "Who's a cute puppy? And you can't take him away. I've already named him. His name is… Chuck."

"You got that off Harry's shoes," Remus said.

"So! I can name him whatever I want. Now, Harry has to get to Curse Breaking before lunch so the rest of you head to your classes." He started pushing Harry along while holding the puppy under his arm.

"Are you really going to keep that dog Sirius?" Harry asked, as he was led to his next class.

"I'll torture McGonnagal with it later before letting her turn it back into a rock. But it is cute isn't it?" Sirius asked, putting it in Harry's face.

"Great," Harry said, pushing it away. "I think I'll stick to snakes."

"Everyone seems to like the animal they can talk to," Remus said.

"Sirius can talk to dogs?" Harry asked, surprised, but sounding sarcastic.

"He is a dog," Remus pointed out obviously.

"Oh yeah. I didn't know you could talk to them?"

"Neither did I," Sirius said, in a state of thought out loud. "How interesting. I'll have to try that out later. We'll keep the puppy till then," he said in a baby voice.

"You're getting a little creepy with that voice there," Harry said.

"He's always creepy," Remus said, sticking to a single tone each time he spoke as if he was just mildly interested.

"Hi Harry." Harry turned away from them to see Cho heading to Curse Breaking.

"Hi Cho," he said, walking away from his guards, who hung back to give him space. He walked over to her and slipped his hand in hers making her smile.

Cho leaned in slightly to whisper something to him. "The guards that are supposed to be "wandering the halls"; why are they following you around?"

"Oh, well they're supposed to be keeping me from the mobbing fans. They must be doing a good job because I haven't seen any yet." It wasn't exactly a lie it just wasn't the whole truth.

"Oh, cool. And I'm glad your mob hasn't shown up yet." They headed into the classroom together and took a seat next to each other. The Professor, Lacket, stood at the front of the class. Looking tall and muscular, white hair, though he hardly looked old at all.

"Hello class. I'm sure you all know what class you're in so I won't have to tell you. We will be learning, exactly what the name of this class portrays. Now I'm sorry I will have to disappoint you but you won't be using your wand in this class today. Today we will be taking notes. So put away your wand and pull out a quill please."

Harry took out Nam and set him on the desk with a piece of parchment so it didn't look like he was setting some invisible creature on the table. Everyone was so bored and engrossed with taking notes at the same time no one noticed him. Harry just doodled on his paper while listening into the conversation.

When class was over Nam climbed back into Harry's bag as he packed up his things. Cho took his hand again and they headed out of the classroom to head to lunch. Sirius and Remus stood at the entrance and Harry and Cho joined the others at the Gryffindor table.

"Have fun with curses Harry?" Ron asked, piling his lunch.

"Oh a blast. All we did was take notes," Harry said. "How was Arithmancy?"

"Bloody hard," Ron said.

"Boring," Bonnie said. "I finished a weeks worth of homework five minutes into class."

"That's because you're a genius," Ron complained. "I'm thankful you helped me though."

"You were going to stab somebody with the quill as you were getting irritated. I had to do something," Bonnie said.

"Ron is a danger to himself but no one else," Hermione laughed, causing Ginny and Bonnie to do the same. Ron glared at them.

"Poor Ron," Harry said. "But next hour we have Professor Potter. That should be fun."

"I wouldn't think so," Cho said. "I was in his class first hour. Your father is nothing like his reputation portrays him. He's very critical."

"See Bonnie. I told you Sirius lied. He's very serious," Harry said.

"Maybe he grew up," Hermione suggested.

"He's 22. He basically left school five years ago. When did he grow up?"

"When he got married and had a son. That's what happens to people."

"Well not according to Sirius's life."

"Sirius isn't married."

"Stop being so logical. I like to believe my father is not going to keep me in a safe hold till I die."

"Sorry," Hermione smiled.

Harry picked at his lunch and felt someone touch his shoulder. He looked over at Sirius. "You better be eating."

"I'm eating," Harry lied.

"Not like a bird," Sirius added. He then stood straight and followed Remus up to the front table to talk to James.

"I don't eat like a bird," Harry demanded quietly, stabbing his food.

"Of course not. Sometimes you don't even eat at all," Bonnie pointed out.

"Everyone should stop nitpicking my diet."

"Harry's right. I'll change the topic. Does anyone else hate these shoes? I do. I heard that the public wizard school in the U.S., they get to wear whatever they want. Only wizarding school that does. It's so unfair."

"That is weird. Though I think, especially for wizards, that would get a little out of control, don't you think?"

"Not really. I heard that they're all really well behaved. Even if it is California. I actually made a friend while I was there, and Harry knows, that's a big feat for me."

"Why were you in California?" Harry asked.

"I don't know actually. Some business my dad had and I thought a visit to the U.S. would be more interesting than the fat cow Veela," Bonnie said.

"How nicely put."

When lunch was over Harry stood to leave, kissing Cho's cheek as she went to meet with her friends to walk with them to class. They all headed up to Defense and walked in, grabbing a seat at the front. His father was sitting on top of his desk, already chatting with Sirius and Remus. Sirius sat in the chair with his feet up on the desk and Remus sat beside James. More of the students gathered into the class and when everyone was seated, James stood leaving the other two on his desk.

"Hello. Fresh new faces in school."

"We're 6th year," someone in the back pointed out.

"While you're in school, to a new teacher, you're always a fresh new face. I bet I went to school with all your parents. And I'm sure they might have told you about their school days maybe once, but they might not have told you that they were branded for life by a famous group known as the marauders. How many of you have heard of them?" More then half the class raised their hands. "Good. I'm happy to hear that. And since you'll find out sooner or later, that's the three of us." There was a flash in the back of the room and James noticed the two Weasley twins with a camera. "How do you two keep popping up?"

"We saw you all summer," said Fred.

"And you didn't tell us who you were," said George.

"And Harry's known."

"Since he was 13."

"And he didn't tell us either."

"How awfully rude."

They both walked out of the room taking one last picture as they left through the door. Fred popped his head back in saying, "we were never here," before quickly leaving.

"Alright, now. It is now well known who we are, but we have changed since then. Don't expect me to be lenient about detentions, points, anything." He looked at Harry while saying this as if to get his point across. "And don't worry. Defense is always fun, isn't it?" Everyone in the class looked scared, as, despite Remus's classes, Defense was never fun. "Now everyone please stand and line up against the wall." Everyone did as they were told. Sirius stood and with a flick of his wand shot all the desks to the other side of the room. "Please take out your wand." Everyone flicked out their wands, besides Harry who caught sight of his father who didn't seem to be paying attention to him. He looked to Sirius and Remus who weren't either. He guessed they expected him to use his hand. He hated using his hand. "Now everyone is going to send a spell at that wall to blow it up. I don't care what spell you use, any one will do."

"What does this have to do with defense?" Malfoy asked.

"You'll see. Please don't interrupt." He turned to Harry who kept looking at his hand. "Harry go stand at the other side of the room," he said.

"What?" he asked, shocked.

"Go stand by the desks."

"Why?"

"Don't question me, just go," James ordered. Harry walked to the other side of the class in front of the entire class. Harry grabbed at a small chain around his neck, nervous. James walked over to him and whispered to him what he was supposed to do.

"What!"

James repeated.

"I can't do that."

"Yes you can." James walked back to the other side of the room. "Now, everyone has picked out their spell to make the wall blow up?" Everyone nodded. "Good, now everyone is going to shoot their spell at Harry." They all looked to him with confused faces. (Besides Draco, who looked excited.) Did he really want them to curse his son? "Don't worry, Harry will be fine," he assured; though Harry didn't look very sure. "Raise your wands and 1…2…3!" Everyone said their spell and a spell came from every wand in the room directed toward Harry. Harry raised his hands, palms facing the group, his left palm over the back of his right hand. He gathered all the spells to hit his palms and they automatically did no damage to him. Instead the spell went back at the crowd. Everyone threw themselves down at the ground as the spell hit the wall. "Good everyone. Now everyone can stand," James said, as if this was normal. Sirius walked behind the students and fixed the wall that saw into the transfiguration class that was across the courtyard with a large hole in the wall. Professor McGonnagal didn't look very happy.

"Sorry Minnie," Sirius yelled.

"Harry, please join the others," James said. Harry walked over and stood next to Bonnie. "Now, who can tell me why Harry's plan didn't work as he had planned. Which was to stop everyone at once. Take in all the spells at once and keep them, which you will all learn to do in your 7th year. Why would this plan not work when all of you had chosen different spells?"

No one raised their hands. Not even Hermione. "No one. Did Umbridge teach you absolutely nothing?"

"Actually she didn't," Seamus pointed out, looking nervous.

"Alright," James sighed, looking to Remus. "Um, Harry was not able to capture all the spells at once because with 17 other people giving different spells all of them would go at different times depending on the length of the spell and the name of the spell. Can anyone tell me how you measure the length of any type of incantation?" Everyone looked at each other to see if someone would be able to answer. When no one did they all looked worried. James sighed, angrily and annoyed. Not at his students but recent teachers. He walked to the other side of the room and with a swish of his wand the desk were back in perfect order. "Everyone sit back down." Everyone took their seat again feeling as though they were in trouble. James went up to the board, muttering how he hated teaching. He tapped it with his wand letting perfect lettering trace the board in notes. "Read until memorized. I don't want to see anyone writing it down and I don't want to see anyone looking away from the board. You'll have a test on this tomorrow and also why it is that spells have different lengths." James walked away and sat beside Sirius and Remus to watch the students stare at a wall.

"Bonnie," Harry whispered, continuing to watch the board.

"Hmm?"

"Tickery the Tick Tock teacher." Bonnie snorted but quickly stopped herself and looked at the board trying to hold back her smile as the marauders looked over at Harry and Bonnie.

"No talking." Harry tapped his fingers on the desk in Morse code. Bonnie started to laugh, holding it back again. She tapped her fingers back and then got a message back. James stood and stopped the tapping. He kneeled down in front of Harry. "Would you like me to tie you up as well?" he asked, pointing to Malfoy.

Harry sighed. "…I can't see the board," he said, looking completely serious.

James smiled at his son. "Detention, tomorrow. Your mother will be so proud." He smiled while standing and walking away leaving Harry with his mouth hanging open.

"For what!" Harry asked angrily, as his father was already halfway across the classroom.

"For talking back to the professor. Don't expect to get special treatment because you're my son."

Harry looked at his desk. "Prodigy teachers weren't this strict and they made us stare at white walls for five hours," Harry muttered to himself.

When class was over Harry packed his things quickly and was first out of the classroom before his father could ask him to stay behind. While walking in the hall he was shoving his things in his bag since he didn't bother while in class so he could leave faster. His friends caught up to him.

"Harry," Hermione said to stop him. Harry continued to walk, speaking angrily to himself. "You know you were over ruling your father. He had a right to give you detention."

"No he didn't. He's done worse things then talk in class when he was in school. And the fact that he was making the whole class stare at the board for an hour was ridiculous. It made me think of prodigy school when they made the school stare at white walls to see what information we absorbed out of it."

Hermione gave Bonnie a questioning look. "I wasn't in the test group that year," she said quickly.

"And to think I was actually looking forward to his class. I'd rather look forward to Potions nowadays then my father's. I hope he's happy." Harry sped up and they headed History of Magic. They sat in the back of the room where Sirius and Remus had finally caught up with them. Harry set Nam on the desk and took out some parchment. He then put on his headphones and leaned back in his chair putting his feet on the desk, ignoring Sirius and Remus with the sounds of My Chemical Romance. By the end of class Harry was asleep on his desk sleeping in his arms. Ron woke him up, noticing the drawing under Harry's elbow. But Harry quickly crumpled it up and threw his things in his bag and followed them all out.

"Harry, you're not really mad at your father, are you?" Sirius asked, as they walked back to the common room.

"No, of course not," Harry said sarcastically. They walked up to Gryffindor tower and Harry slid inside slamming the painting on Sirius and Remus. They both sighed and decided to go back to James.

Harry went over to his friends who were starting on their homework. Harry sat down in his chair and noticed that Prose had made his way out of the dorms. He picked Prose up in his hands. "Not scaring anyone are we?" Harry asked him. Prose shook his head. Harry rubbed Prose chin whispering things to him. He let Prose curl up on his legs as he pulled out a sketchpad from his bag and started to draw.

"Harry, shouldn't you be starting on your homework?" Hermione asked.

"No," Harry answered easily. He was really offended about his father now. It wasn't just that he gave him detention. It was the way he acted. His tone, the sighs, making everyone feel stupid. He was almost as bad as Snape. He suddenly felt like he disliked his father. Before he knew it he was falling asleep in his chair.

Bonnie watched him quietly as Venus wrote up her paper as she dictated it to her. Venus used her roses as her pens and wrote very quickly and exactly in Bonnie's discrete and elegant writing. Bonnie stopped talking when she noticed Harry was fast asleep. She looked around the room, as everyone seemed to be distracted with friends or homework. She crawled over to his chair and, carefully as she could, slipped his sketchbook from under his arm, while carefully watching him to see if he woke up. She pulled it away from him and watched his face for a second to see if he would wake up. When he didn't, she crawled back over to her spot on the floor and looked down at his drawing.

It was a young girl, long flowing hair to her shoulders, perfect features, and large eyes with no core. Her eyes were white and shining, though completely empty. It was unlike his other pictures she had seen him draw. Harry moved in his sleep and Bonnie went back over to him. She lifted his arm carefully and set his book back. She then went back to her work, looking back at him every few minutes. When she had finished her paper she let Venus leave to play with Nam.

"You finished already?" Hermione asked.

"Huh?" Bonnie asked, not paying attention.

"You're already finished?"

"Oh, yeah. It wasn't that hard."

Harry slept till dinner and they all headed down together. They sat down at the Gryffindor table. Harry ignored everything said to him. Bonnie looked at him. "Harry, are you alright?" Harry didn't answer. "Is this about your father?"

Harry slipped something into his mouth while pulling a piece of paper out of his pants pocket. He slid it over to her while saying," J'ai un projet."

Bonnie smiled at the paper. "Quel genre de projet?" she gasped happily. "Nous sont pranking l'école?"

"Qui," he smiled. Bonnie looked back at the paper and smacked Harry. Obviously questioning his plans. Harry looked at her but then pointed at the paper slowly explaining it to her in French.

Ron leaned in closer to Hermione. "Do you speak French?"

"Not fluently. I just caught plan and… yes."

"Harry said he has a plan and confirmed that they're planning a prank on the school," said Ginny. The four, including Bonnie and Harry, looked up at her surprised. "What? Mum didn't have a reason to teach her son's culture."

Harry turned back to Bonnie and began speaking German. Ron and Hermione looked to Ginny expectantly.

"Sorry, I only speak two languages," Ginny said, finishing her dinner and leaving to sit beside Dean. Bonnie and Harry quickly put away their plans for later. They started to talk to Ron and Hermione, who left the pranking to Bonnie and Harry, wanting them to have something to themselves. While the two were speaking German Hermione and Ron both decided silently that it was their job to get the two together. Though their plan diminished when Cho arrived. They both saw Bonnie's smile fall and she turned away as Harry said hello to his new girlfriend. It was like she was used to it.

"Hi Cho," Harry said.

"Hi, I heard that your own father gave you detention today," she said.

"Oh yeah. He was being awful. He's never really like that. He usually at least smacks my forehead or shoves me to the floor before he reprimands me. School changes us all though doesn't it?"

"When did he smack your forehead?" Ron asked.

"Don't remember. Maybe that's Sirius I'm thinking?"

"Oh yeah. Transfiguration class. Probably getting back at your for smacking his hand."

"They act like children. And when they don't they act too strict."

"Your family is weird," Ron said, jokingly.

"You have five brothers with bright red hair."

"Both your families are strange, can we agree?" Hermione asked.

"Your parents are dentists," Harry pointed out, laughing slightly. Ron and him both broke down laughing for reasons unknown. Hermione couldn't even keep a smile off her face for some reason.

"I don't think I'm spending Christmas with you two," she said, faking hurt.

"Hey," Bonnie said, stopping the laughter. "If we would like to stop the argument, my father is French yet he's the British Prime Minister and my mother fixes other people's minds when she is in serious need of a therapist herself." They all stayed silent for a moment before bursting out laughing.

"That's right Bonnie," Hermione laughed. "You win."

"I always win," Bonnie smiled laughing quietly while flipping her hair over her shoulder.

\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\

The next day the first class on the list was Bonnie's mother. "Let's see if we can get your mother to give you detention. Then we'll both be back at the common room at the same time."

"Impossible. My mother wouldn't get her daughter in trouble if her life depended on it."

"That's what I thought about my dad."

"So if you're in detention tonight how are we going to work on plan paint," she whispered.

"We'll work on it after. Or before."

"Don't you have homework to do after class Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I finished it."

"When?" Hermione asked.

"During Battle Tactics."

"You haven't been there yet."

"Trust me. I'll get it done." They went into class and took seats in the back where Bonnie suggested. Class began immediately after that. The one thing everyone noticed about their new teacher was that she spoke with her hands. Harry and Bonnie sat beside each other, their heads connected and their eyes closed as they fell asleep.

"Ms. McNeal, detention and you too Mr. Potter."

"I already have detention."

"Next day then."

They all headed out of the class and Sirius stopped Harry as they walked down the hall. "Harry, you can't keep getting detentions."

"I like my detentions."

"Well you'll be skipping the one you just got. That night you'll be joining Dumbledore in his office."

"What for?"

"Don't ask. It's part of training."

"Fine." Harry walked quickly to catch up to Bonnie. They were all heading to their class while Harry had to separate from them to get to Battle Tactics. He sat down at a seat in the back, pulling his bag over his head and setting it on his desk. He turned his head, feeling someone staring at him. He caught sight of half the girls in the class turning in unison to look away. Harry turned back to look at his desk and felt the eyes on him again. He slowly moved his eyes and glanced at them so they didn't know he was looking. They giggled to each other, staring at him. Harry reached into his bag and smiled. He slowly pulled out Prose. "What are you doing in my bag?" he asked, giving the girls a reason to look away.

"I was bored."

"Oh, well I don't think we're allowed to bring pets to class."

"I am not a pet, master," Prose said.

"I'm sorry. But you're not allowed. So you won't mind if I put you back in my bag?"

"No. I'm talking to Nam."

"You can talk to him?"

"We try." Harry sighed and let Prose slither back into his bag.

"Alright!" said the professor at the front of the class. "To start off this class, all of you will be getting a partner. I will be choosing them according to your recent classes and how you excelled at your N. E. W. T's." He picked up a list off his desk and walked down the isle. "Now when I say your name and the name of you partner you're going to grab the next desk. Sitting at the first desk," he said, pointing to the desk beside him looking down the list. "Ms. Tamara and Mr. Doctrine. Next table is," at the table opposite the first," Mr. Ackerly and Mr. Bletchley. Next table is Mr. Cauldwell and Ms. Brocklehurst, then Mr. Derrick and Ms. Moon, Mr. Pucey and Ms. Sloper, Ms. Turpin and Mr. Potter." Harry took his seat beside her as she ignored all the evil glares she was getting from the other girls. The Professor gained their attention back. "Now, the person beside you will be your partner for the year. I hope you decide to get to know him or her. I want you all to know each other like your best friends. You will be fighting with each other and in wars with each other and planning battles together. If you can, I want you to spend all your spare time together. For the remainder of the hour you'll talk with your partner and discuss your homework which is on the board." He then went to his desk and sat down, pretending to look like he was doing something.

Harry turned to the girl sitting next to him. She had long wavy black hair and purple eyes. Very cool purple eyes. "Hi," he said carefully.

"Hi, I'm Lisa Turpin," she said.

"Nice to meet you."

"Um, you're not going to carry a snake around with you everyday are you?" she asked nervously.

"Oh… no, he slipped into my bag. Though I promise he's a very nice snake."

She just nodded and pulled parchment out of her bag and copying down the question on the board. Harry looked up at the board.

**The two of you are surrounded by 6 "dark" wizards, only one of you has a wand, and the other is carrying a small dagger, how do you work together to tackle all of the "dark" wizards?**


	15. I Am A Marauder's Son

15

I Am a Marauder's Son.

Harry grabbed a piece of parchment and quickly drew up a diagram on what they could do. As he was working he didn't notice that Lisa had stopped to watch. He had made up three different ways they could take on the battle. Lisa asked him to explain them and he did, in depth. Lisa was surprised that he could make up three different full-proof plans. The bell rang and they both left with plans for their homework. They talked on the way out of class before separating.

"Aww, make a new friend Harry?" Sirius asked, walking up beside him.

"That's what the professor said to do," Harry said, taking the papers out to look his work over. "I think I like this class."

"Why, because there are pretty girls in it?" Remus asked.

"No, because it's easier." Sirius took one of the papers from his hand and looked it over. Harry didn't seem to mind and continued to walk. Sirius stopped in his tracks and Remus stood beside him.

"Wow. And he thought he was going to die. You can't die if you're taking down six death eaters without a wand. Merlin has a run for his money."

"Are you both coming?" Harry yelled. He walked over and took back his paper before walking ahead.

"James and Lily had a miracle child they did," Remus said. They both followed Harry to Defensive Magical Invention. Soon it was lunch but Harry didn't end up going. He was now sitting in the hospital wing with his hand set in flames. It didn't want to go out.

"Are you sure that doesn't burn?" Sirius asked him, kneeling at his side.

"No," Harry said plainly. "It kind of tickles a little."

"Oh my God!" Lily ran into the room and beside her son. "What happened?"

"Nothing, I set my hand on fire. I didn't die!"

"That's not funny!" Lily turned away to talk to Sirius and Remus. Harry looked to the three of them to see that they were occupied. He looked at his hand that was covered in red flame. He took his hand that wasn't and touched the flame to see that he didn't feel any heat at all. But only problem was that his other hand was on fire now to. At least it stopped at my wrists, Harry thought.

"I can't itch my nose," Harry complained. They all looked back over to him.

"How did you set your other hand on fire?" Remus asked shocked.

"I touched the other one." He scratched his nose and set it on fire. He got rid of the flame by rubbing it in the crook of his elbow, but now his arm was on fire.

"Harry, stop that!" Sirius said.

"Where's dad?"

"Talking to Dumbledore," Lily said, she said, sitting back down with him. She pushed his hair back. Harry held his hands up in front of him so he wouldn't set the sheets on fire.

"I feel like a doctor," Harry joked. "Don't touch me, I'm sterol."

Lily smiled but the other two didn't get the joke.

Dumbledore and James walked into the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey. "Do I still have detention?" Harry asked.

"Yes," James said quickly. Snape followed into the room as well. "How did this happen? You're supposed to be keeping an eye on him," he said to Sirius and Remus.

"We were. But it's like the exploding puppy incident. It was inevitable."

"Just explain what happened."

"Hey!" Harry yelled; interrupting everyone's talking. "I was sitting right there. Don't you want to hear my story?"

James nodded and they all waited.

"Well it's very simple actually. You see I was working on this little box. It was supposed to be filled with a curse. Never got to find out what the curse was because I kept thinking that I wished I could just turn to ash because everyone kept staring and all of a sudden my hand caught fire, along with the box, setting off the curse. Everyone went screaming out of the room. Sirius was almost trampled. Don't know why as the curse wasn't much. But―"

"So basically you wanted to be ash so you set yourself on fire. Very normal," Remus said, catching everyone's attention. "For an elementalist."

"I just want to know how I turn it off." No one was listening to him as they were all talking about Harry being an elementalist and how they hadn't seen this before. Harry was getting frustrated. He flicked his fingers forward shooting fire at his father's robes. James quickly put them out and everyone turned angrily back to a fumed Harry.

"Harry―"

"I don't care about anyone's stupid opinion on how I got the ability to play with fire. I just want to know how to stop it so that I can go to lunch. I am not your stupid science experiment!"

"Harry, we're not treating you like a science experiment. We're trying to figure out how this happened," James said calmly.

"So I'm an elementalist. And Remus was right. Someone want to grab a book and look up how elementalist's work their powers or something?"

"It doesn't work that way Harry," Dumbledore said.

"Oh my God!" someone by the door said. Harry looked over to see that his friends had found out where he was. "You set your hands on fire?" Ron asked.

"It was an accident," Harry said.

"Excuse me," Madam Pomfrey said. "You're not allowed in the hospital wing right now."

"I'd rather see them then any of you. If you're not going to do anything now you mine-as-well leave and come tell me when you figure it out. Or I can figure it out myself." Harry looked at his hands. He snapped his fingers and sent a streak of fire at the opposing wall. Everyone ducked as it exploded. "Yep, definitely a power, not a curse."

"Don't do that again," Lily said, standing up again.

"Duh." He blew on his fingers but it didn't help. "Can I go to lunch?"

"Not until we can get your hands to un-flame." Harry threw himself back in bed and everyone went back to talking. Harry looked at his hands. He was angry when it started so maybe if he was calm. He sat up and looked at his hands. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and tried to think of something calming. First thing that popped into his head was Bonnie. He suddenly felt the tingling in his fingers disappear. He opened his eyes and saw that the fire was gone. He smiled.

"There. Now I'm going to lunch," Harry said, climbing out of bed. They all looked to him and noticed him standing, his hands not on fire anymore.

"Harry, I don't think you should leave already. Let Madam Pomfrey check you over."

"These are my bodily functions. I'll figure them out on my own thank you. Now, I'm going to lunch to fulfill another bodily function, it's called eating. See you at dinner," he said, leaving the hospital wing with his friends running to catch up with him.

Harry grabbed a seat at the Gryffindor table and began piling food on his plate. His friends slowly sat down beside him watching him eat. "Fire take a lot out of you?" Bonnie asked.

"Apparently," Harry said his mouth full of food. "Either that or I'm eating fast cause we only have five minutes left."

\-\

The week went by slowly after that. Harry didn't have any more outbursts of fire that week; he served his two detentions, though his second was with Bonnie and not that bad. Though it turned out his detention with his father was not even detention, it was private training. The day after he met with Dumbledore for the same thing. He would have to do the same thing the next week.

It was now the weekend, the day of the first Hogsmeade trip. Harry's date with Cho was today, but oddly enough he wasn't at breakfast yet. And neither was Bonnie.

Suddenly the Great Hall looked up as Bonnie and Harry entered the Great Hall carrying three balloons each. They were both smiling madly. Walking up to each table they gave one person a certain balloon. Bonnie walked up to the Slytherin table and smiled at Draco seductively while handing him one. He smiled back at her while taking it gently, then staring at it terribly confused. While they didn't look away from each other for a few seconds Harry sent a spark of fire at Draco's plate to make him look away. Bonnie left the table as Harry went up to the front table. He handed McGonnagal a balloon. "What is this about Potter?" she asked, suspiciously.

"Duh, its Master Turnip's 567th birthday." Harry rolled his eyes disgraced and turned away from them. He went over to Cho and gave her a balloon and Ginny as well. Bonnie had given her last two balloons to a first year Ravenclaw who looked a little scared of her and an attractive Hufflepuff Boy. Then they both headed back over to their table and sat down. They smiled at their friends, picked up their drink, did cheers, and drank to the liquid turnip that began to fall like slime from the ceiling. After a few seconds of a heavy and thick pour of disgusting liquid goop it stopped, with a few drops still leaking from the ceiling. Everyone with a balloon was saved but everyone without was covered in Turnip paste. Bonnie and Harry smiled to each other holding their glasses under a leak gathering it in their glasses. They cheered, "God rest your soul Master Turnip. I am sorry we gave you a heart attack," Harry said loudly. He waited and motioned for everyone to raise their glasses. Bonnie and Harry drank and then spit it out on the floor.

"Mr. Potter, what is the meaning of this?" McGonnagal yelled.

"Why are you angry? We spared you!" Harry asked innocently.

She thought about it for a moment and Harry actually got a smile as she sat down. No one else seemed to think it wise to say anything. Potter never got in any real trouble and most thought it was a waste of time to punish him if he wasn't going to stop.

Harry turned to Cho, who looked a little disappointed and had let go of her balloon. "What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"I didn't want to be spared," Cho pouted.

"You want to be covered in turnip paste?" Harry asked, running a finger over her cheek.

"Maybe," she said, smiling a bit. Harry smiled and leaned forward and tucked a finger under her chin leading her lips to his in a deep first kiss. With his other hand he slowly picked up his glass still filled with turnip and poured it over her head causing her to move away in surprise. She smiled at him while glaring. "Thank you," she smiled, quickly losing the glare.

"I'm going to go puke up my turnip now," Bonnie said, interrupting the love fest, "excuse me." She stood and walked quickly from the Great Hall. Ginny stood from the other end of the table and quickly followed her out, surprisingly graceful despite the slime, and without slipping.

"Your friend Bonnie doesn't like me does she?" Cho asked.

"Don't take it personal. She dislikes a lot of people for no reason at all. She hated Ron and Hermione when she first met them too. Now come on, we should get cleaned up before we head to Hogsmeade or the birds will be pecking at us when we step outside." Harry grabbed her hand and they all stood from the table as others were heading out to do the same thing.

When they had all gotten cleaned up they met up at the door to grab a carriage with the others. Bonnie walked up to the hall wearing a large black hat that shadowed her pale complexion and wore a long sleeved modern black and white striped shirt long enough to be a dress, black leggings, a pink bow around her wrist and tights cut into socks under black low tops. Cho was looking her over.

"You know it's almost 50 degrees too hot to wear that hat," Cho said, as though she were being helpful. Bonnie glared at her.

"I didn't ask for your opinion. At least _I_ don't dress like my personal stylist picked it out _for_ me!" She turned meaningfully and began to walk away. Ginny smiled and turned to follow behind her. Bonnie's new best girlfriend. Harry grabbed her wrist before she could leave though and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Keep an eye on her for me will you?"

"Bonnie's a big girl Harry. I think she can take care of herself," Ginny said, about to leave again.

Harry pulled her back. "You don't know Bonnie the way I do. She can get out of it sometimes. And don't let her go near Draco Malfoy. I'll know if you do." Ginny smirked at him and walked away.

Harry pulled Cho's hand to pull her along with the others. "What were you saying to Ginny?" Cho asked as they walked.

"Nothing."

It was silent for a few minutes while they walked before Cho brought it up again. "I told you she didn't like me," she said as they got out of the carriages. Cho motioned to the glare Bonnie was sending her. Harry looked over just as Bonnie looked away.

"She's just very personal with her outfits. Especially her hat. She says if she got a tan she would look weird so she either doesn't go out in the sun or she covers her face."

"Do you do the same?" Cho asked, noticing he had the same pale face, as if he hadn't seen the sun in a long while.

"No, I'm just naturally pale," Harry pointed out.

"Oh. Doesn't she know that the sun is good for your skin?"

"Not for her's apparently. So where do you want to go?"

"Well, I think the coffee place is jinxed from our last date there so why don't we just walk some?"

Harry nodded, took her hand and they separated from Ron and Hermione, who were heading into Honeydukes.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, who is Mr. Turnip?" Cho asked.

"Mr. Turnip is an old teacher of mine who worked as a professor at the Prep school I went to as a child. That's where I met Bonnie."

"You went to a prep school. I thought the Dursleys didn't like you," she said confused.

"I'm surprised that got around the school. I've never heard it mentioned before now."

"Everything ever said to anyone about you has been sent around the school."

"Oh, well, they didn't like me. But they didn't really care this time. It was a boarding school and it was their chance to get rid of me. And I got a full scholarship there so they didn't have to pay."

"How old were you?"

"Five."

"You got a scholarship to a _prep_ school when you were five?"

"Well it wasn't really a prep school it was more of a prodigy school but I really don't want to talk about that right now. I spent half my summer explaining all this stuff to my parents and my friends. You and the rest of the world know almost everything about me, what about you? What's your favorite color?"

Cho smiled. "Blue."

"Hmm, guess it's not just Gryffindor's who are obsessed with their house," Harry said. "What is your favorite flower?" Harry asked, looking around the streets for sign of a camera.

"Um, I'm not sure. I'm not really a flower person."

\-\

Bonnie and Ginny wandered through Diagon Alley. "Hey Bonnie," Ginny said carefully. "Why is Harry so over protective of you? I mean, you're not going out or anything."

"I don't know. All the guys in our group tend to watch me. Take care of me. Harry's the leader, and he's closest to me. Or as Fish calls it, he was the one who found me."

"Found you?"

"Well he was the only one to really accept me into their little group for a while. I had to fight for that position. The others thought that I wasn't on the same level. Then he found out about my home life and realized in a way that I was just like him and his friends. I was the only girl to run around with a bunch of wild little boys. They kind of took me on as their 'little sister.'"

Bonnie caught sight of Draco Malfoy down the street. She looked back and saw Harry and Cho wandering down the opposite end of the street. "Come on," she said, taking Ginny's hand and running down the street toward Draco, who was walking around with Blaise Zabini and the two cronies.

They stopped right in front of him and Draco looked over at them both with a confused face. Blaise followed his stare and watched as the two girls ran toward them. They both stopped in front of them, Bonnie wearing a pleasant and dainty smile while Ginny looked annoyed at having to run to Draco Malfoy and his friends.

"Hi," Bonnie said cheerily.

"Hi," Draco greeted calmly, raising his eyebrows at her excitement. "Miss McNeal I believe."

"It's Bonnie, and I think you know Ginny," she introduced.

"Yes, we've met."

"Bonnie come on. There are more interesting things then Malfoy and his friends. Much more."

"Now, now Ginny. No need to be rude. We'll leave in a minute. But Mr. Malfoy was polite enough to offer me his company on the train station and I just wanted to thank him. So thank you Mr. Malfoy," she smiled.

"Finally getting tired of Potter are we girls?" Malfoy asked, ignoring her apology as show that he wanted her to stay.

"No, he's on date," Bonnie said, a strained smile showing through.

"Oh, so I'm your second choice?" he asked, leaning forward.

Bonnie smiled. "Well, actually, you're not. We knew he would be gone today."

Draco smirked watching her. "I can take that. Would you like to join me today?"

"I would love to," Bonnie smiled.

"Bonnie!" Ginny said.

"Ginny can come too," Blaise added, eyeing Ginny strangely.

"Right," Draco agreed.

"Bonnie, can I talk to you a quick moment," Ginny ordered.

Bonnie sighed. "One minute gentlemen," she said, walking away with Ginny.

"Bonnie, that's Draco Malfoy!" Ginny said shocked at Bonnie's actions. "The disgusting Death Eater. I can't wander around with Blaise Zabini. My brothers, all five of them, will kill me, and Harry and Hermione will help. Not to mention the fact that Harry has asked me to keep you away from Draco Malfoy."

"He asked you to do that?" Bonnie asked in shock.

"Well he looked really worried."

"Ginny, please. I feel like I've been in a white room for years and not let out. Please come with me." Ginny sighed giving in to Bonnie's sad face.

"But you're going to make this up to me."

Bonnie hugged her before pulling her back over to Draco. She hooked their arms together and followed him down the street. Ginny did the same to Blaise as he offered her his arm and she politely pretended to be interested.

"So, Bonnie, why are you friends with Potter? You're a little out of his league, don't you think?" Draco asked.

"Oh, well, we're not dating. We're just friends. I've known Harry since we were seven years old," Bonnie said.

"Really, any juicy gossip in there?"

"None I'm going to tell you."

"So, if you're not going out, why was he so adamant about not letting me shake your hand?"

"Harry's just weird. Hey! Let's get a butterbeer," she smiled. She pulled him by the wrist into The Three Broomsticks.

\-\

Ginny sat down beside her at the table as Bonnie quickly downed a butterbeer and asked for another one.

"My brother is going to kill me," Ginny said quietly.

"Why?" Blaise asked, as though he didn't know her at all.

"Duh, I'm wandering around Hogsmeade with two Slytherin boys."

"What are you whining about? I will have seventeen boys yelling at me over one cell phone, then Harry to deal with later. Actually I'll be dealing with Harry first and then the others, but whatever."

"Who are the seventeen boys yelling at you? And what's a cell phone?" Draco asked.

Bonnie pulled out her cell phone and handed it to him. "That's a cell phone. And the seventeen boys are some of my friends. They treat me like their little sister."

"They go to this school?" Draco asked, pressing buttons on Bonnie's phone.

"No, they go to St. Brutis's Secure Center For Incurably Criminal Boys. Bad little boys they are. Harry would have went but he was captured up by the prodigy people before the social workers could get to him."

Draco looked a little panicky but gave a fake smile when Bonnie smiled happily at him.

"Let's get you another drink shall we?" Draco asked, as she downed another.

"Ha, ha. Let's not. You'll have all those boys chasing you down till you suffer an awful death if you try to take advantage." She smiled sweetly and they walked off.

\-\

Meanwhile Harry was having a very boring date with Cho. He had found very quickly, that once you got her on the subject of herself she didn't seem to stop. She was one of those girls that when you ask how her day went, she won't just say fine, she'll tell you every single thing she did with excruciating detail and every emotion she may or may not have had over it.

Harry looked around the room hoping Ron and Hermione would come in and save him. But they didn't. The pub was empty besides the few happy couples on good dates.

"Harry, are you paying attention?" Cho asked.

"Yeah, Embridge said Sarah is getting fat and you said she isn't and she said she was. What did you say again?" Harry asked as if he were interested but secretly being sarcastic.

"I said she wasn't. Either she's pregnant or she's just eating a bit more then usual, but I wouldn't say she was getting fat, you know? I wonder who the father would be if she was pregnant."

"I don't know."

"I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

_Just a little,_ Harry thought. He sighed. "No Cho. You're not boring me." He leaned forward a bit to talk softly. "You know the castle is bare. You wanna go back and spend some alone time together?" he smiled.

"Are you asking me to shack up with you?"

"No, just some harmless snogging," he smiled.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure," Harry said.

Cho smiled but it fell as quickly as it came. She raised her hand and slapped him across the face. She stood from her seat as Harry held his cheek.

"Oww," he said. "What was that for?"

"Perve." She walked away.

"Wow, usually they just say yes. Hey Cho. Hold up," he called, leaving his chair while setting some gold on the table. He caught her outside talking to a reporter. "Ah hell," he swore. He ran over toward her and caught her arm. "Hey Cho."

"Oh Harry," she said happily, suddenly changing her whole demeanor like a completely different person. She took his arm and held him close. "Smile for the camera."

"What?" Before he understood the flash went off in his face as he turned. Out of instinct his fist came forward in contact with the photographer as he lowered his camera, hitting him straight in the nose and knocking him off his feet.

"Harry!" Sirius called from behind him. Him and Remus ran up and Sirius stopped behind Harry, taking his shoulders to make sure he didn't do it again.

"I'm sorry. It was just a natural reaction," Harry apologized.

"Can we keep the picture?" the reporter asked.

"_No_." Remus walked over and pulled the film from the camera before handing it back to him.

Sirius turned to the crowd that had gathered. "You can all leave now. Thanks," he said sarcastically. "You alright Harry?" he asked calmly as everyone began to leave.

"Nmmnn," he mumbled, moving his hand with his eyes closed. He turned to Cho. "What was that all about?"

"You're bachelor of the year. You have to have your picture taken sooner or later or the press will get bored."

"Well that's good then isn't it? I want then to get bored. And no, I don't have to have my picture taken. Why would you do that? Everyone knows I hate press."

"I wanted them to see that you had a new girlfriend."

"Right now. I thought you had broken up with me. You hit me. Then you're all cheery cause the camera crew caught you at the right time? Are you using me for publicity or money cause you obviously don't care about me. Though I guess we now both have reason to hate each other." Cho was speechless. "Hmm, you've finally shut up." He turned to the reporter who was writing something down. "Don't you dare quote me on that, and if you do, you'll join your friend on the ground with a broken nose." He then walked away.

\-\

Harry sat on a couch in the common room wondering how much longer his friends would be out. He was thoroughly bored, and was keeping himself entertained by practicing his fire. He got onto the floor and folded his legs to sit in meditation. He closed his eyes and relaxed his breathing. He emptied his mind of everything leaving his head empty of all thought. Holding back from thinking of how he had done it.

He thought that if he could learn to be relaxed he could help his occlumency and make it easier to control fire if he could easily relax.

\-\

"Harry?" James asked, walking into the common room. Harry didn't respond, only continued to breathe evenly in and out, his eyes closed, facing the fire. James went over to him and kneeled down beside him. He slowly waved a hand in front of Harry's face. Harry's hand quickly reached out and gripped his wrist in front of him and his eyes shot open. He looked over to notice that it was his father. He slowly loosened his grip and let go.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"It's okay. Good reflexes. You're getting better."

"Thanks," Harry said modestly. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, right," James started. He moved slight to sit with his feet behind him and his knees in front. Harry smiled, realizing that he sat like that too and shifted to do the same making James smile with him. "Well, I heard you punched out a reporter."

"I apologized. And it was a natural reaction. I didn't mean to, it was an accident."

"I know. Sirius explained. Your girlfriend doesn't seem too happy though, does she?"

"She'll get over it."

"I won't tell your mother. She was very happy when I told her you were going out with Cho Chang. Though so was I. But if you don't like her that's fine. We won't bother you about it or anything."

"You _want_ me to date Cho Chang?"

"I'm not controlling you Harry but, it would have been nice. Cho's pretty, she has money, she has a good family. She's not _that_ boring."

"_You_ go out with her then."

"I'm married."

"Hmm."

James rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm not saying you have to, just that it's a good match."

"She's using me for money and publicity," Harry fought.

"No she's not. Maybe it was an accident. Besides, it's not like you're going for anyone else. Are you?" he asked quickly, leaning in to hear.

"No," Harry drawled. "Is that the bet? That I'll marry Cho Chang?"

"Merlin, no. Nothing that drastic."

"Would you tell me what it is? I promise I won't tell anyone that you told me. And I'll help you win the bet."

"What's the fun in that? I don't need to win; I have money Harry. It's just the fun of watching."

"How fun for all of you." He leaned onto his side rolling his eyes. "Dad."

"Yes," James asked, looking around the common room, noticing there wasn't much difference between now and when he had been in school.

"If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell anyone?"

James looked at his son as he sat up again in the same position. "Sure."

"Well, you know Bonnie?"

"Yes, I know Bonnie."

"Of course you do. Well―"

"You love her don't you. Ha, I win." Harry glared at him. "That wasn't what you were admitting was it?"

"No."

"Oh, well continue."

"Well―" The portrait opened and Hermione and Ron walked in. Harry looked down and James knew he wasn't going to talk now.

"We'll talk later." He ruffled Harry's hair and stood up. He headed to the portrait as Ron and Hermione came over.

"What did your father want?" Ron asked, sitting down on the couch.

"He just wanted to talk about punching out reporters."

"Ah yes. We heard. Word travels fast," Hermione said. "I didn't like Cho Chang anyway."

"Where's Bonnie and Ginny?"

Suddenly the portrait opened and Ginny and Bonnie came falling through the portrait hole. They were gigling incessantly. They stopped suddenly when they saw the others.

"Having fun?" Harry asked. He didn't look happy.

"Yes," Bonnie answered. "Loads. Ginny and I were just talking."

"Mhmm. I'm gonna go. I have to study." Harry stood and left the commons through the portrait hole. He gave a disappointed stare at Bonnie and shook his head slightly before leaving.

"Harry doesn't study anymore," Hermione pointed out.

"He's not studying. He's sulking. It's like he has ESP. Oh no; Bonnie spent the day with Draco Malfoy. I'm going to call up all the guys and beat the crap out of someone!" she mocked.

"Bonnie!" Ginny said, outraged.

Bonnie looked at Ginny who was hiding from her brother behind her hair. Ron stood up looking furious.

"Oops. Look it wasn't Ginny. She didn't want to. I made her."

"Why were you hanging out with Malfoy?" Hermione asked.

"Because he's hot! And I never get to do anything. So when I finally got out I kind of went wild. Harry wasn't there to keep me locked up for once. I wanted to hang with a bad boy and Draco was there. I'm sorry for bringing Ginny with me. But she had fun, didn't you?"

Ginny stayed silent, not daring to admit anything.

"Malfoy is a death eater. We don't hang out with death eaters. Do you know Harry Potter? The boy who lived. Draco goes to Voldemort tells him some stuff you said and you're putting everyone in danger."

"Well I'm sorry. I wasn't prepped in the rehearsal for not talking with the enemy. Oh and by the way, Malfoy sleeps with a pet bunny every night that he named Mr. Winky and he has weak fingers. Voldemort has fuzzy pink bunny slippers and his weakness is his snake Nagini. Yes, me and Ginny found all that out in one hour with Draco Malfoy."

"How did you find all that out?"

"Eavesdropping. What do you think Harry talks to all his little buddies down on Privet Drive about? How to put on black eyeliner? I can hear. And I _can_ speak Japanese."

"Wait, what?"

"No, I've said too much. I'm going to go find Draco. If you see Harry, tell him I said, "Je hais lui."" She then walked angrily out of the room.

AN: Je hais lui: I hate him.


	16. A Dream of the Stupid Childhood

16

A Dream of the Stupid Childhood

Harry walked down the hallway as quickly as possible trying to make sure Sirius and Remus didn't catch up with him. He turned down the corridor and walked into the library. He knew for a fact that Mrs. Pince was not fond of him at all. But he planned on spending a lot more time in the library these days. He had to find some way to keep himself from dying within the first three seconds of his fight. And maybe learning to use the powers he inherited from Merlin. He remembered clearly from his meeting with Dumbledore and his father, Sirius, Remus and his mother.

"Harry, the Potter line alone, is a great descendent of Merlin. So we're guessing that, it maybe skipped a few generations, and all your power makes you the great descendent of Merlin and his power."

"I have all of Merlin's powers?"

"In a sense yes. Well… yes. All of them."

"You should do some research in your spare time," Dumbledore said, smiling at him with that, what Harry now found as annoying, twinkle in his eye.

So Harry went up to Mrs. Pince's desk and leaned forward to whisper. She looked up at him not looking too pleased.

"Um, could you tell me where I could find information on Merlin?" Harry asked sweetly, putting a bit of charm into his voice.

"Very back in the left corner. Good luck on finding anything and try not to be trampled by dust. Nobody has been back there in a century."

"Thank you." He walked away and headed to the back of the library ignoring the many stares of the others who had heard about his fight and girls who were giving him weird looks now that he was 'single' again. He walked to the back of the library where it was quite dusty. It looked as though Mrs. Pince didn't like this section either, not enough to clean it. Cobwebs and dust hung from every book: floor to ceiling.

The beginning of the wall had an old sign beside it that was labeled Merlin, and the sign at the end was labeled Merlin. "Wall to wall," Harry mumbled. "This should be fun." He grabbed a ladder and slid it over to him in front of one of the shelves. He climbed the ladder up to the top. He pulled one of the books out. He opened the cover to the front to find a date. 1927. "Nope," he said, putting it back. He moved the ladder more to the side and moved down two shelves. Pulling out a second book and blew off the dust that covered it and moving the cobwebs. It wasn't titled. He opened it to the cover where it was dated 1202b.c. "Now that's what I'm looking for." He climbed down the ladder and set it on the table and went back to the same shelf looking for the dates on all of them, finding them all without titles as they seemed to have worn off and the dates somewhere around the age when Merlin lived or died. Chances are more of them were factual then ones written today when people didn't know anything but gossip, since apparently no one cares about their god anymore. He brought down at least eighteen books and set them on the desk. He grabbed one of the books and opened it to the first page to find an actual title. The paper was old, written on old papyrus that would saturate and ruin in water on contact. These books should be preserved in vacuum sealed boxes where you read them with spatulas and thin gloves. Mrs. Pince really wasn't doing her job over here.

He looked around the desk and in the drawers. On the bottom drawer he found a very old pair of gloves. "I'll be better off making my own." He pulled out his wand and conjured a pair of gloves, tweezers and spatula. He slid on the gloves and checked the title.

"Documents to Preserve the Life of The Great Merlin. Written by: John Heedis ~§~."

"Strange symbol," Harry said slowly. "I've seen this before."

He slowly stood from his chair and walked two rows down where a group of girls were doing homework. He stepped onto one of their chairs and then the desk as they all watched him longingly. He reached up and took down one of the books as the girls gasped at the stomach that was shown before them when he lifted his hands. He jumped off the desk.

"Sorry for disturbing you." He then left the isle and went back to his seat. He leaned back in his chair and searched through the book looking for the right symbol. He found it quickly, remembering reading about some kind of symbol for Divination class. "So it does come in handy."

"This is a symbol used in the times of Merlin to show who was a wizard and who was not. As at that time, wizards were known as evil. So to keep in touch with other wizards when communicating through books or letters they labeled this mark with their name so they knew it was another wizard they were speaking with. Nowadays there is no need for this symbol because there are so many wizards living everywhere," Harry read. "Good so it was written by a wizard. Even more reliable I suppose. Though what muggle book would be at Hogwarts."

Apparently quite a few he realized after he searched the books on his desk. He put the books written by muggles in a separate pile beside his desk. He looked back at his first book and searched through it slowly reading on about how Merlin was great and the things Merlin did. Mostly useless stuff to him.

He looked at his watch; a new one that he had bought on his trip to Diagon Alley with his parents because his father insisted he buy an expensive one. It was almost ten o'clock but he insisted on finding something useful. He wasn't tired anyway. He continued to search through his papers. He slowly fell asleep on them a few seconds later.

\-\

**Harry sat kneeled beside Fish in the shadows of the last house on Mongolia Crescent. He had both hands laced together on the tip of his St. Jimmy stick, his chin rested on his hands. They were observing Mr. Parker from across the street as the old man carried his groceries out of his car. He looked back at them as they hid behind the bushes. They all ducked at once. Then slowly came back up, peeking over the greenery. They then snuck slowly around the bush as Mr. Parker began to, quickly as he could, make his way to his house. **

"**Tell me again why we're stalking Mr. Parker," Fish said, quietly. **

"**Because, he shouldn't be wearing that toupee. It's angering me. So we're going to attack him and steal it."**

"**Ahh," he said, as though this was a very reasonable explanation to attack an old man. **

"**Potter!" Vernon yelled from across the street. **

"**Whaat!" Harry whined, turning around to face him standing up. "I'm working." **

"**Well there goes Mr. Parker," Tim said from behind him. **

"**Oh shit," Harry whined, throwing his arms down, realizing what he'd done. **

"**Don't you swear on this street boy!" Vernon yelled. **

"**Why the hell not? Everyone else on this fucking street does." **

"**Get in here and do your your chores boy before I beat you." **

"**Go away before I whack you with St. Jimmy's stick." **

"**Don't you threaten me boy!" he yelled, walking out of the house.**

"**Quick, **_**walk**_** away," Harry joked to his friends. **

**His uncle caught up with him and picked him up around the waist. **

"**Put me down!" Harry yelled, trying to wiggle from his uncle's grip. **

"**Boy, I'm going to beat you so hard, you're going to wish you hadn't talked back," Vernon threatened. **

**Harry's friends stood up to fight back as Harry was about to make a witty comeback when a loud scream echoed down the street. **

**Harry took the moment to whack his uncle in the back making Vernon drop him on the ground. "Why you little****―****"**

"**Daddy!" the girl screamed as Harry collapsed onto the ground and crawled a few feet away from his uncle. **

"**What is it Bonnie?" asked a tall young man, running out of his house two doors away, wearing a straight black suit that made him look too expensive to live on this street. **

"**That man just threatened to beat his son," Bonnie accused, pointing a finger at Harry's uncle. **

**The man stood up. "Is this true sir?"**

"**He's not my son, he's my nephew. And a good beating is what he needs once-in-a-while. Plus, it is none of your business."**

"**Well maybe you should give him a break today."**

"**You got lucky today boy. I'm gonna take you out of that school and send you to that secure center." **

"**Yeah, yeah," Harry sighed, sitting up on the cement road.**

**His uncle stomped back into the house and slammed the door. **

**Harry headed back over to his friends and picked his stick back up off the ground. **

"**Young man," said the man in the expensive suit, catching Harry's attention, "come here for a moment." **

**Harry looked back at his friends who were beginning to walk up to him again, protectively. Harry motioned it was okay and for them to stand down. They kneeled into the shadows again and waited. Harry walked slowly over to the man, carrying his metal stick like a cane without a handle. **

**The man was kneeled down so he was face to face with the boy. "What's your name young man?"**

**Harry bowed slightly, still holding onto his stick. "St Jimmy sir," he said gallantly. "At your service," he stood. **

**The man couldn't help but laugh slightly and his daughter giggled. Harry didn't see the humor. This was how he greeted everyone. Though some of the adults thought it cute at first, they soon realized it wasn't just something he did to be cute. It was actually how he thought people should greet each other. Like they all lived in the 12****th**** century. **

"**Do you have a real name St. Jimmy?" the man asked. **

**Harry leaned in. **

"**Harry Potter. But don't tell Fish. He thinks I forgot I had a real name." **

"**Fish?"**

"**He's hiding in the brush."**

"**Ah yes, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I happened to spot you all, hiding in the bushes, stalking your neighbor. I think you would make a great addition to a certain army one day." **

"**I don't believe in war sir. It's a terrible way for all nations to show just how far the human race has fallen," Harry said sharply. **

"**Oh!" he said, shocked by the young man's words. Though everything he said seemed to be more intelligent then a normal seven-year-old. "Well, maybe an activist." **

"**I'm going to save all of man kind sir. Please don't mock me." **

**The man was surprised to find that Harry sounded completely serious. He could have sworn his wife told him that Harry Potter knew nothing of his past and future. "Harry****―****"**

"**St. Jimmy," Harry corrected. **

"**St. Jimmy. Do you happen to know a man named Professor Dumbledore?" **

"**No sir." **

"**Oh, well I guess that was all I needed to know. It was nice meeting with you St. Jimmy," he said, holding out his hand. **

**Harry took a step back and tapped his stick into the dirt again, staring at the man's hand like a foreign object. **

"**Okay." The man pulled his hand away. "It was nice meeting you." **

"**You as well sir. But next time, leave my uncle to me. My aunt will have a fit when I get home. But it was nice of you to try." Harry flashed his famous smile and picked up his stick to walk away. He gathered his friends and they went to track down Mr. Parker.**

"**Okay, so he's back in his house. Tomorrow morning we'll come back out early and grab a stakeout when he comes to get his morning newspaper. We'll whack him in the leg and grab the toupee. So right now we're****―****"**

"**Excuse me!" yelled the voice of the little girl again. **

**The four boys turned around slowly with very confused faces, wondering why she was talking to them. They looked at her like she was a strange creature they'd never seen before. **

"**Yes?" Harry asked first, clearly disturbed by her intrusion.**

"**Hi," she said cheerily, her pink dress bouncing as she walked. Her Shirley Temple curls pulled into two pigtails. "My name is Bonnie McNeal. I just moved here and I was wondering if I could hang out with you four?"**

**The four stared at her like she was insane. **

"**No," St. Jimmy told her plainly. **

"**Oh," she said quietly. "Okay," she said weepy. She began to turn away, sounding like she was trying to hold back a cry. **

**Harry looked slightly disgusted, a corner of his mouth curling up, but he couldn't let a girl cry without feeling guilty. He turned to Fish, Tim and Tom. **

"**You're St. Jimmy," Fish said, motioning to the girl. "Do what you like." **

"**Okay," Harry said quickly. "You can hang out with us for the day." **

**Bonnie turned around quickly without a tear on her face but a large smile. "Great." **

"**Great," Harry groaned, looking over her outfit. **

"**You don't like my outfit?" she said sadly. **

"**You're attracting the sun," Harry groaned. **

"**No. You are."**

"**What?"**

"**The sun is attracted to black. Pink will send the sun away."**

"**I know that," Harry winced at her naïve spirit, "I was being sarcastic."**

"**Oh. You don't like my outfit though?"**

**Harry sighed and turned to his friends. "We should add her to the group." **

"**What!" the three said in unison. **

"**St. Jimmy that is reputation suicide," Tom said. **

"**Rep suicide," Tim repeated.**

"**No. Look, she's a girl and she's wearing pink but we can fix that. Put her in some darker clothes, pale up the complexion a bit. She'll make a great pet. Like a mascot. She's cute, right?"**

"**You can't be serious," Fish said. **

**Harry whacked the metal St. Jimmy stick on the ground commanding respect in the line of St. Jimmy's view.**

**The three quieted down and agreed. Harry turned to the girl who was waiting patiently. "Alright. You're joining the group. But you must remember. It's a lifetime commitment you're making to me and to us, your friends." **

"**Got it," Bonnie smiled. **


	17. Breaking Up When You Don't Have a Relati

AN: Hey, thank you for all the people who sent nice reviews. Here's another chapter.

I got a flame a while back that said that Harry's ability to speak so many languages was unrealistic but at this point it doesn't really bother me what's realistic? Its Harry Potter. There's a secret society of wizards living right under our noses. Why not broaden my horizons on the impossible? So for those of you who also don't mind a story where things are a bit "surreal," please enjoy this next chapter.

\-\

17

Breaking Up When You Don't Have a Relationship

Later that night Bonnie returned to the tower and climbed into her bed. She rolled onto her side and looked at Hermione as she pulled up her covers and picked up her book. "Hey Hermione," Bonnie said carefully. Hermione looked up. "Do the other sixth year girls hate me or do they just have squinty eyes?"

Hermione turned toward the others. They slowly turned away when Hermione looked at them. She turned back to Bonnie. "They don't hate you."

"It's because me and Harry are so close, isn't it? They think that I'm the reason Harry broke up with Cho, right?"

"How could you possibly be to fault for that?"

"It's always my fault. I'm always to fault for Harry's breakups. It's his fault. He's the one who's too close to me. Not that I don't enjoy being his friend. He's my best friend in the world. My very first. He let me join in his little group. I owe him everything. That's why I've never whined about how clingy he is to the only girl who isn't his girlfriend. Neither has Fish. Do you think it would be cruel of me to finally complain?"

"I'm not sure. You and Harry obviously have some wacky relationship."

"I guess." Bonnie rolled back onto her back and looked at the top of her bed pulling back her curtains. "Just for a little while. What can it hurt? Harry will understand, right?"

\-\

Harry walked into the Great Hall, late as usual in the mornings, his shirt untucked and his robes practically hanging off. He didn't sleep well after being woken up on a book in the library by his godfather. He slumped down at the table and laid down on his arm.

"Sleep well Harry?" Ron asked.

"Lovely," Harry lied, lifting his head and grabbing his drink. "I learned some very interesting things from the books in the library. Would you like to know something I learned?"

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

"Because I didn't learn anything. First hundred pages of a book about Merlin told me the author's opinions on how Merlin used his powers for good and when the author said the next chapter would be actual facts they were facts from his crazed opinionated mind. He thinks Merlin had an affair with Jesus's mother and Jesus was actually a wizard not an offspring of God. That would make none of us pureblood and all of us descendants of Jesus Christ. It was quite amusing to hear the words "he believed his son never inherited his own powers that deflected muggle life," come from a man describing Merlin or God's own son." He took a large sip of his drink. "Oh, I'm learning a lot."

"It's good to hear. Hey Harry, I didn't get to ask you yesterday. What did you get on that test in your father's class?"

"An "A"," he said plainly.

"How, you didn't study," Ron pointed out. "Or pay attention.

"I looked it all over. I have a photographic memory when I want to."

"Harry," Bonnie said quietly, causing Hermione and Ron to suddenly go quiet knowing what she was going to say to him. Ginny seemed to stare at him worried.

"Hmm," he mumbled, oblivious to everyone else.

"I know you don't seem to be in a good mood this morning but uh, I wanted to talk to you."

"Well you're already talking, so what is it?" Harry asked tiredly.

"Harry, je pense que nous devrions briser. (Harry, I think we should break up)."

Harry gave a tired laugh. "Bonnie, nous ne datons pas. (Bonnie, we're not dating)."

"Je pense que nous devrions nous reposer comme les amis. (I think we should take a break as friends.)"

Harry finally looked wide-awake. "De que parlez-vous? (What are you talking about?)"

"Toutes les filles dans cette haine d'école me. Vous savez pourquoi ? Parce qu'ils pensent que vous m'aimez et ils pensent que cela est pourquoi vous avez brisé avec Cho. Il est avant arrive. (All the girls in this school hate me. You know why? Because they think you like me and they think that's why you broke up with Cho. It's happened before.)"

"Mais j'ai brisé avec elle parce qu'elle ennuyait et m'utilisait. Ce n'est pas mon défaut ces filles sont insensées. Je n'ai pas obtenu ce célèbre exprès. Et qui soigne ? Vous jamais avez dit n'importe quoi avant. (But I broke up with her because she was annoying and using me. It's not my fault these girls are insane. I didn't get this famous on purpose. And who cares? You've never said anything before.)"

"Bien je dis quelque chose maintenant. Je ne pense pas que nous devrions parler pour un peu pendant que. (Well I'm saying something now. I don't think we should talk for a little while.)"

"Vous n'êtes pas supposé pour abandonner vos amis Bonnie, (You're not supposed to abandon your friends Bonnie)" he said seriously, finally realizing she was serious.

"Je ne suis pas. C'est juste pour un peu pendant que. Je suis désolé, Harry, (I'm not. It's just for a little while. I'm sorry Harry)" Bonnie apologized, standing up. Ginny stood with her and they both walked over to the Slytherin table.

Harry watched them both sit down with Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. He turned around not looking tired but terribly angry.

"Harry, are you going to be alright?" Hermione asked.

"I'll be just fine," Harry said, picking up his knife and staring at it dementedly. He flipped the knife around in his fingers and stabbed it into the table and straight through the sturdy wood table. "I'm going to go plan Malfoy's suicide for him." He stood from the table and walked out of the hall. Sirius and Remus followed behind him.

Hermione and Ron looked over at Bonnie who was laughing at something Draco had said, and Ginny actually looked truly amused.

\-\

Sirius and Remus ran up to Harry to talk to him. "Harry," Sirius said, slowing over to his side. "What was that about? You damaged school property on purpose."

"My French conversation with Bonnie has pulled me back to my destructive childhood. Apparently we're taking a break. Not that we're going out but things don't have to make sense if you don't want them to. That's the way Bonnie thinks. You can have a break from your friends for as long as you want and go hang out with your best friend's murderer's minion. Malfoy. I think I should suggest him to make out his will as well because I just may kill him in his sleep."

"Harry, you need to calm down a little. You didn't get enough sleep. Why don't you skive off classes for the day and rest? You're a little over one week into school and having a nervous breakdown. I'm sure your father won't mind. We're keeping you from murdering."

"He deserves to be murdered. And if you hold me hostage to keep me from killing him I'll call a hit man," Harry said delusional.

"Maybe we should get you a calming draught," Remus said.

"I don't want one. I just need a drink and maybe a Tootsie Roll. The only one who has a Tootsie Roll at the moment is Bonnie. And I really want to say I hate her at the moment but I can't. Because I'm St. Jimmy and as much as I hate Voldemort and Malfoy I'm not allowed to hate my friends or family even if they really do deserve it. But no, I will not skive off classes."

\-\

Harry picked his bag up from the commons and headed straight for potions. He was the first one in the classroom as he dropped his head onto the table. Sirius and Remus couldn't try to say anything to make him feel better because he had asked to be left alone. Something about Harry really made you feel bad when he was upset. Harry needed to be happy for anyone else to be happy. Once you got to know him you just couldn't help but want to make sure he was okay.

The next to walk in were his girl fans followed by everyone else. After seeing the fight between Harry and Bonnie and watching Bonnie walk over to Draco and knowing that Harry had broken up with Cho, girls were fighting for the seat next to him.

"Would the girls at the door please find a place to sit," Snape asked, walking in. One of the girls finally won after she gave the other girls five galleons each and promised to give them something of Harry's if she stayed with him long enough. They all gave in and found a seat somewhere else. The girl who won sat down beside Harry as he watched Bonnie sit with Draco at the front, surrounded by other Slytherins. He wondered whom Ginny was sitting with now that she was a traitor to her kind as well. Luna was probably okay with it since she wasn't a Gryffindor. He really did hate Draco though. He wanted to set his perfect hair on fire with one snap of his fingers.

"Hi, my name's Gretchen," said the girl beside him, distracting him from his thoughts. He looked up at her. She had perfectly tanned skin, straight light brown hair, china doll lips, and perfect makeup accentuating strong brown eyes. She held out her hand in greeting.

Harry took her hand. "Hi," Harry said slowly, not looking too excited but she didn't seem to care.

Snape began lecturing, giving him a reason to not have to talk to her. He limped through class until it ended and they turned in their work and left. Gretchen followed him out.

"Harry, I realized we didn't get a chance to talk in there."

"How disappointing," Harry sighed, loosening his tie.

"Well, I heard the fight this morning. What happened?" she asked, as if really sad for him.

"Nothing."

"Oh." It was quiet as Harry and she walked down the halls. Harry heading to his next class but didn't know where she was heading. "So Harry, now that you and Cho are broken up, are you looking for a new girlfriend?"

"Not really."

"Well that's okay. Can I have an autograph, piece of your clothing, one of your possessions, lock of you hair?" she asked, touching a strand of his hair.

Sirius and Remus caught on that this was going too far when Harry flinched at her, swearing out of her reach and they quickly walked up. Remus grabbed hold of Harry's arm and led him away while Sirius told Gretchen that Harry really had to get to class. Once she had wandered off he walked back up to Harry and Remus let him go.

"First time we actually had to do something," Sirius laughed.

"Might have to do it again," Harry mumbled as they came upon a girl heading toward them with a smile. Harry sneaked away to hide behind Sirius's robes.

"Remus, distract her. Come on Harry," Sirius said quickly. He took Harry's arm and pulled him along. They walked very quickly through the hall making sure to walk faster then they had been previously. Sirius suddenly stopped at a wall.

"This better be a one day thing," Harry sighed.

"I highly doubt it Harry," Sirius said, tapping his wand three times against the wall like the entrance to Diagon Alley. The wall opened and Sirius looked around. He grabbed Harry's arm again and moved him through the wall. He then closed it up and led Harry through a tunnel.

"Does this lead to my dad's office or something?" Harry asked.

"Front door of the classroom. Without this passage none of us would have made it back to class on time." Sirius whacked his wand once when the passage stopped. The wall opened up and Sirius shoved Harry out. They were right outside the classroom as Sirius had said. Sirius closed the passageway and shoved Harry through the door to the right. The classroom was completely empty beside James who stood at the front of the room.

"Here early," he said.

"Harry had a little run in with a few stalkers of his. We used a passage to get here without running into another," Sirius explained.

"Oh, my poor son," James smiled as Harry took a seat in the back of the room and dropped his head on the desk. James's smile dropped and he looked to Sirius. "The girl stalkers upset him that much."

"He was like that when potions started. Whatever Bonnie said to him must have hurt a lot."

\-\

Class started and Harry sat alone in the back of the room. Sirius stood behind him and glared at the girls, who turned around to glance at Harry instead of their work, knowing full well Harry wouldn't care if these girls decided they didn't like him anymore because of it. Harry pulled his feet onto his chair watching Bonnie across the room as she quietly whispered to Malfoy. They were supposed to be reading.

James walked between them and kneeled down to talk to them to stop their whispering and took ten points from each of their houses. He then walked up to the front of the room and looked at his class. "If you didn't finish reading its part of your homework. Right now you're going to take some notes."

Everyone whined.

"I know. Everyone hates taking notes," James said as though it annoyed him to. He returned to his regular composure. "But we're going to take them and you'll enjoy them like good little students should. Tomorrow I'll teach you how to defend yourself and take one man down completely with just one spell. What strange spell? It will be the surprise for tomorrow."

Everyone took out a piece of parchment and a quill with ink and started on their notes as James wrote them. He turned to the class and walked in front of them as they copied from the board. "Now, if Malfoy is a squib, ("Hey!"), with a sword and a dagger and a gun in his pocket and… Ms. … Granger is the only one who can use a wand, who do you think has the better power over the other."

Harry raised his hand from the back when no one else would. His father still sent off a sort of demeaning aura.

"Yes, Mr. Potter," he said pointing to the back.

"As much as I hate to admit it, it's Malfoy."

"And what made you come to this conclusion?" James asked, pacing in front of the class, waiting to see what his son actually knew. Until you got to sixth year it wasn't a big topic of discussion or reading.

"Besides the fact that it's the obvious answer because it isn't? First, who can really defend themselves against a sword? Especially when Hermione only has a wand. You said she knew how to use it but never said she knew any spells or curses to _defend_ herself with the said wand she could use." Before his father could comment Harry went on. "Another reason would be a squib's, in itself, own power to know exactly when something is coming. They have a heightened sense of fighting that helps move before hit by a curse and slice Hermione in half with a sword before she even notices that her curse has missed. It's the better part of being a squib."

"Good analysis. And what does a squib do to defend itself when Ms. Granger knows the killing curse or a cruciatus curse and has the means to use them?"

"They could shoot a bullet. The metal and shape of a bullet deflects said curses," Harry said dully.

James looked confused.

Harry quickly corrected his answer. "I mean, a magical item used by a squib will deflect any curse except the killing curse, which will kill you, squib or no."

"Good," James said. Harry slumped in his chair as his father continued with the notes. He watched dully as Nam wrote up his notes for him.

When class was over everyone headed out but Ron and Hermione came over to Harry at the back of the room while he packed up his things.

"Are you alright Harry?" Ron asked. "You kind of disappeared in the hallway."

"I'm fine. But I have to get to Battle Tactics before my stalkers realize what class I came out of and where I'm going. I'll see you at lunch."

They both nodded and watched him leave sadly, really starting to wonder if they should hate Bonnie or wonder if Harry was over reacting.

\-\

That night Harry skipped dinner and went right to the library and went onto a different book then the one with the Merlin – Mary theory.

He lay down on the floor in front of his book and opened it to the front page. The book was titled on the first page: _The Lost Documents of Merlin__._

The first chapter spoke of Merlin, in first person, at sixteen years old. It wasn't a story, he knew that. The paper was very old and the whole book was written in what most people would label "some type of gibberish" nowadays. But Harry could read any language after a few minutes of building the language structure. He flipped through the thin paper, thin-gloved hands and a spatula.

The first chapter spoke of Merlin, falling for a young woman in his years of being a teenager. He lived with his parents and had just given himself a name as a wizard. He was nervous about girls and banned from talking to some of them. If the girls ever did anything with him, they might "catch" what he had.

He continued to read, finding this book more interesting then the other. It sounded just like Merlin wrote it himself. And the more he read the more Harry believed it actually was.

Sirius walked up behind him and paused at what he found. Harry was sitting against a bookshelf, staring intently at the book in his lap, turning a page with a special spatula. He was surrounded by stacks of old books in the only part of the library that was never touched.

"Harry," he said carefully. Harry looked up. "You should start heading back to the common room before you fall to sleep again."

"Right." Harry closed his book and pulled off his gloves. He stood up and put the book in his bag along with the gloves and spatula. He then followed Sirius out of the library.

"So what are you reading?" Sirius asked.

"What I think is Merlin's diary."

"He has a diary? Where did you find that?"

"In the library."

"Can I see it?" Sirius asked.

Harry pulled the book out of his bag and handed it carefully to Sirius. Sirius opened it carefully; noticing how gentle Harry was with it. He looked over the page.

"You can read this?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah. I think it was the language Jesus spoke or maybe another form of Latin but it was before Christ was born. It wasn't hard to learn after a few minutes after I tore apart the language and put the pieces back together. They taught us how to do that at Victoria's. Or those of us who didn't already know how to do it."

"Did you?"

"I could pull apart Italian, French, German. Languages like that. But going so far back it's kind of hard to pull it out of any other language because people really formed them out of nothing. So I had to learn that. Came in handy I guess."

"Guess so," Sirius said closing the book and handing it back. "What did you learn so far?"

"Not much. Merlin was a normal person but other people thought that magic was contagious so he wasn't allowed around girls. Quite sad really. But that's pretty much as far as I got."

The walk went silent as they made their way up to the tower. "Um Harry, your father wanted me to ask you. Are you okay? Cause we're thinking that what Bonnie said to you might have hurt a little more then you're telling people. You're not exactly good at hiding your feelings. You try to look bored but you really look depressed. And why is Bonnie hanging out with Malfoy?"

"Because Malfoy happens to be more interesting then I am. My fame, and stalkers, and the fact that I have them and she has to live with them and they all _hate her_ is giving her reason to stop being friends with me. Just for a while though, she says. And now she's hanging out with Malfoy because he's a stupid slime ball who will weasel his way into her head through her virgin ears with sweet words and lies."

"Do you really know Malfoy that well?" Sirius asked.

"Doesn't everyone?" Harry asked.

Sirius thought this logical and accepted it. "So Bonnie did upset you?"

"Bonnie didn't upset me. What do I care if she hangs out with a piece of bloody prune all day," he said venomously. He didn't sound like he didn't care.

"And, don't forget. You're going to see Dumbledore tomorrow for your extra classes. And then your father would like to talk to you afterward."

Sirius dropped Harry off at his dorm and left to go find James. Harry waited a few minutes and walked over to the others. Ginny and Bonnie were sitting in front of the fire as usual like nothing had happened. Harry walked over to Ron.

"Ron, I need to speak with you a moment. In private," he added when Bonnie looked over. Ron looked at him suspicious but motioned Hermione off his lap. She sighed.

"Can't I be in on the conversation?" she whined standing up.

"It's one of those things you wouldn't approve of," Harry said, pushing Ron away from her. He led Ron up to the dormitories. Harry set his bag on his bed and had Ron sit across from him as he revealed his plans to him. Ron thought Harry was being a little drastic at first but was excited anyway and agreed to join him.

"Okay, I'm calling Fish and he's coming through the floo to join us. Three against three might be more useful. Or three against one."

"Okay. I'll finally get to meet the infamous Fish," Ron said.

"Actually he won't be here very long. Just to help and then he has to get back to St. Brutis's. They keep a close look on him now after he shot the chickens in the farm next to the school."

Ron just nodded. "We should get back downstairs before anyone gets suspicious about our plans."

Harry nodded and grabbed his book from his bag and his utensils.

"What are you reading?" Harry told him about his book as he headed down the stairs and into the commons.

"Why are you reading up on Merlin?" Ron asked as they sat down. Hermione took her seat back on Ron's lap and Harry took the couch and laid his book out in front of him.

"Apparently I've inherited his powers. Our family line goes all the way back to Merlin. That's quite a destiny to live up to."

Harry looked over to Bonnie who obviously didn't care. Her and Ginny were looking over homework on the floor in front of the fire. Bonnie was wearing her large hat again and Ginny seemed to be enjoying Bonnie's sense of style. They were the best gal pals. Bonnie was letting her borrow her clothes and things since they were both shaped like short models. Still, he wished he could pull her away from the fireplace and sit her on his lap and bury himself in her neck taking in the scent of her. But now he was even farther away from her then before. He couldn't even talk to her.

He turned away and turned back to his book.

Ron and Hermione watched sadly from afar. Ron rested his chin on Hermione's shoulder, renouncing his thought of Harry being drastic and instead deciding that he was just really in love with someone who just told him not to talk to her.


	18. I Need You, Please Don't Leave

18

I Need You, Please Don't Leave.

Harry and Ron stood by the fire waiting for Fish. Everyone else had already gone to breakfast. Fish came through the fireplace and fell on the floor. Harry and Ron just stepped back dully.

"Thank you. You're really helpful. I appreciate it. Oh no, I'm fine, I don't need help. Let go of me," Fish mumbled to himself as he pulled himself off the floor as if the two were helping. He looked up at Ron. He stuck out his hand. "Hello St. Jimmy's _pureblood wizard friend?_ Right?"

"Yeah," Ron said slowly, shaking Fish's hand.

"Great. What am I doing?" he asked, turning to Harry.

"Right, well Bonnie is staying true to her nickname for the week and has refused to speak to me because my fame is making the girls at school fawn. Anyway, she has taken refuge from me and is staying with Draco Malfoy."

"Ooh, bad death eater. Has she forgotten the rules? Didn't you two go over the rules before you even entered the school?"

"Yes even, cause she was checking him out on the train and I told her off and then she goes onto this. I told her, out of all the guys in the school she had to pick the death eater."

"And Malfoy? Isn't he that guy you said plastered his hair to his head for two years?"

"Yeah."

"Disgusting little Tacker," Fish said as they headed out of the commons. "Okay, so you're going to corner him, into the classroom. Then me and Ron will kick him till he dies while you threaten him."

"I would take out the St. Jimmy stick but I'm getting it polished at the moment. And I don't want you to kill him. Just beat him up a whole lot. Give him a bloody lip, hold him back, I'll punch him to the ground then you can all kick him in the stomach. That sort of thing."

"You know that if Malfoy shows up in front of Bonnie all beaten up claiming he can't talk to her anymore, she's going to know it was you."

"Not that I care. But even if I say that Malfoy isn't going to do what I say. Even if I can get people to beat him up."

Harry pulled out his map and opened it and reached for his wand. "Oh for the love of Merlin. Ron can you say it. Sirius still has my wand." Ron pulled out his wand and said the spell. Harry checked over the map. "Oh, Mr. Malfoy has decided to leave breakfast early. How lucky for us. And he's left alone. How sad for him. We could have taken down his cronies."

They snuck around corners of the castle and met up with Malfoy in front of one of the empty classrooms. Fish was hiding in a corner of the classroom and Ron and Harry turned the corner just as Draco passed the classroom.

Draco stopped when he saw them looking at him strangely. "What do you want Pot head?" Draco asked. "Come to tell me not to touch your precious Bonnie?" he smirked.

Harry smiled.

"Pot Head?" Fish asked, coming out of the shadows. "St. Jimmy's never touched a drug in his life, grease ball. Though I really do like your hair at the moment," he said getting off topic.

Harry glared at him and Fish caught what he was doing. He shoved Malfoy in the arm from behind. Draco tripped forward but caught himself.

"What are you going to do Potter? Beat me up in the middle of the hallway for staring at a girl who doesn't even want you? She's Beauxbatons and you're a tacky little idol who got his popular daddy back. Makes sense about Bonnie leaving you with that tacky little lip ring."

"It's not a ring. It's a stud. And for your information, Bonnie's been my friend since we were seven years old."

"She has no interest in you Malfoy," Fish said. "She's just trying to make Harry jealous."

"And who in bloody hell are you?"

"I'm Fish. We're going to send you to bed now. Bye, bye." He grabbed Draco's arms and pulled them behind his back before he knew what was going on. He looked back at Harry who smirked at him before pulling back his fist and socking him in the face. Draco fell back into Fish who dragged him into the abandoned classroom. Harry let Ron go in and looked around the corner to see if anyone had seen and then ran in himself.

Draco was still held up by Fish, his hands behind his back as his lips bled and his cheek swelled up. He licked the blood off his lip and looked evilly at Harry.

"Muggle fighting Potter? And I thought you were supposed to save the wizarding world."

"Shut up."

"All this can be healed quickly."

"Ah, but the pain is there until then."

"This isn't very saint like, _St. Jimmy_. Three against one. Even if I am better with a wand."

"Hey, only friends can call me St. Jimmy. And you must be so proud you're better with a wand but guess what? I'm not even allowed to use one anymore. You can tell your master that. I'd like him to know what he's up against. Not that wandless magic should be his biggest fear from me."

"I'm sure the Dark Lord has no fear of _you_ Potter. He's going to murder you easily and your cocky little attitude."

"I have no doubt that he won't."

"The Dark Lord has more power then you will ever know. You have no idea what you're up against."

"He obviously can't teach his death eaters very well. You can't even fight me. And I've never even been to wizard school," Fish mocked.

"What are you? A mudblood? Gross."

Fish glared and tightened his grip. Draco winced.

"You don't scare me Potter," Draco said as Harry paced in front of him. "Your little girlfriend likes me much more then she likes you. Soon, I'll have her pacing the Slytherin common room waiting for me to fu―"

Harry hit him so hard he hit the floor and Fish had to let go so he wouldn't be hit with the back of Draco's head. Draco hit the floor hard and groaned at the pain in his head.

"Don't you dare say a bloody thing like that about her." He kicked Draco's stomach. He walked away and ran a hand through his hair. "Go ahead." Fish smiled and kicked Draco's shoulder, turning him over on his back. Fish grabbed at Draco's hair and stepped on his stomach and stood straight slightly, pulling at his hair. Draco groaned. Fish sat on Draco's chest and kicked one of Draco's legs and Ron heard something crack.

Ron watched and realized Fish must have done this before. Harry watched interestedly, as though he were watching a student.

Fish grabbed at Draco's wrists and pushed them over his head. He pulled down the sleeve on his right arm to reveal the Dark Mark. "Aww that's so cute. A little branding so Voldemort can show everyone that he has _friends_," Fish said in a cutesy voice. He turned around to look at Harry. "Death Eater. Unless he tattooed it himself. I highly doubt it though." He looked back at Draco's arm. "That is some ugly piece of work."

He climbed off of Draco and looked up at Ron as Draco curled into a ball again. "You wanna give him a few kicks before I give it a go?" he asked, as though they were children sharing a toy. Being generous.

"Uh, no that's alright. I think you and Harry have covered it."

"Ah come on. Think of all the things he's said about you, your family. He's conned your only little sister into sitting at his lunch table. Come on. Don't tell me you can't hurt him. I don't care if you skip over him, you've gotta have something."

Ron looked down at Draco and thought about it.

"He's a death eater Ron. And we're not going to kill him. Just get your hatred out real quick so St. Jimmy can give his speech."

Ron thought about all the hateful things Draco had done to him and gave him two hateful kicks in the side.

"Good. St. Jimmy, you can have him."

Harry walked over and kneeled down in front of Draco not looking very happy. He spoke in a seriously low tone. "Draco, I'm going to tell you something. If you don't abide by at least the most important rule, I'll cut your head off, and make it part of the art on the wall of my bedroom. First, if you had been nice, even if you had that disgusting mark on your arm, I probably would have let you off. And I wouldn't have made you like Snape, what Dumbledore did to him. You could have been part of the group just like everyone else. But instead you decided to follow in your father's footsteps and stay a Death Eater. Working for a guy who will kill himself without even realizing or thinking it through and live with a snake face until he dies. Tell him I said hello. Last thing, is this. And listen carefully. You won't tell Bonnie any of this happened. If you must, you fell down the stairs. And I don't think you'll have a hard time with it, because you're not going to talk to Bonnie. You don't talk to her, you don't look at her, and you better not touch her. I don't want to see you holding her hand or touching any part of her, visible or not, while I'm around or not. If she doesn't listen to you about it, and blames me for this, go ahead. Talk to her. What do I care? But if you tell her anything bad, smirk at her, do something seductive or break the other rules? This little talk we're having won't come with the next abduction. I'll just get rid of the very thing that creates the Malfoy line and I bet you won't be very happy about that. And then who's going to create your perverted pureblood wizarding world? Do I make myself clear Malfoy?"

"Crystal. You prude."

"That's _not_ very nice." Harry stood up and led the other two out of the room.

"Are we just going to leave him there?" Ron asked as they began to walk away.

"His friends or a teacher will find him sooner or later," Harry said. "We should get to class. Fish, you should get back to school."

"Right. You want me to talk to Bonnie? I'll call her of course but you want to me to talk to her about dating outside the circle without permission?"

"No, because then she'll know I'm complaining. I may be brooding but at least I haven't whined to her yet."

Fish nodded and Harry led him back into the commons. Fish said goodbye and hopped into the fireplace. Ron and Harry grabbed their bags and ran to class.

\-\

That night Harry walked over to his father's office. He had no idea what he wanted to talk about but had some idea that it had to do with what he was going to tell him before.

He knocked on the door and waited. Sirius opened the door. "Hi. Remus and I were just leaving. Come on," he yelled to Remus. They both left the room and left the door open for Harry. Harry walked in to find his dad sitting at his desk.

He smiled. "Harry, sit down."

Harry walked over and sat down in the seat in front of his father's desk.

"Harry, you wanted to tell me something before. But first, I just wanted to let you know that I know you were the one to beat up Malfoy. I know you think he's a death eater―"

"He is. We saw the mark on his arm," Harry interrupted.

James stopped. "Are you sure?"

"This is Lucius Malfoy's son. What was everyone expecting? The seed of Satan to be a good little boy and join the light side?"

"I'll talk to Dumbledore. But just, leave Bonnie alone Harry. If she doesn't want to talk you've got to respect that. Beating up the guy she hangs out with is not going to make her want to talk to you again."

"How would you know? You have no idea what our relationship is like. She broke the rule. You're not supposed to abandon your friends. She broke the rule and now her little friend is going to pay the consequences. If she knew what was good for her she would stop seeing him. She's only getting herself in danger. If she didn't want me to be so over-protective she could ask and I'll cross her name out of the St. Jimmy book and leave her alone. But until then, I'm not going to let her hang out with some death eater and get herself killed. I promised her dad I wouldn't let anything happen to her and I'm not about to break a promise."

James sighed. "Fine. Just, don't beat anyone else up okay? You did a pretty good job to. Broke two ribs, his nose and his leg. Maybe we should have held back a bit on the physical training."

"Actually I think that's the other thing you wanted to talk to me about. Or I wanted to talk to you about." James looked confused but motioned for Harry to continue. "Well all that physical training you and Sirius put me through with the fighting and junk. You said I was really good and I learned really fast. Well, there's a reason to that that I didn't tell you guys. When I was younger, my friends Fish, Tim and Tom were the only people in the Sub Gossip Children's group. In fact, I don't think it even had a name yet. Anyway, when we were younger, I had this thing where I had planned to save the world. I was kind of an anarchist. I was going to take over. Well, the guys and I were weird and we spent all of our summer time training to fight off the "enemy." Whoever that happened to be in the future. So you see, I already knew how to fight. Quite well actually according to Bonnie's dad."

"You planned to take over the world when you were what? Seven years old?"

"Actually I think it started when we were five. When the St. Jimmy stick was formed and our names. I'm really sorry I didn't tell you before."

"That's okay. No big deal. Though I do now notice how strange you were as a child."

"You have no idea actually."

James smiled but then it fell when he realized he still had one more thing to tell his son. Harry suddenly seemed okay now that he had admitted something to his father and James really didn't want to upset him again.

"Harry there's one more thing I was supposed to tell you." Harry looked up waiting. "Um, your mother and I… well your mother…. Well she's pregnant."

"Took my advice?"

"Well actually it was an accident."

"Hmm."

"Do you always have to do that? Are you okay? With the fact that you're going to be a brother. Have a sister or a little brother."

"Sure. I won't be here long enough to actually meet them but I'm very happy for you."

James sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Have you found out what it is?"

"No, it's only been a month. We just found out. Wizard pregnancies work basically the same way as muggle."

"Well I'm sure you're both glad you'll actually get to spend more then one year with your son or daughter."

"Harry―"

"No. It's great. I'm very happy for you both. I hope you enjoy your new son or daughter. I have to get back to the commons before curfew so I don't get in trouble. So I'll see you tomorrow. In class," Harry said standing up and heading to the door.

"Harry―"

"I'm fine. I swear. No need to worry about me. Tell mum I send my love." He opened the door and walked through past Sirius and Remus. "Night guys." He headed away down the halls.

Sirius and Remus headed into the room and closed the door. "Didn't take it well I'm guessing?" Remus asked.

"He says he took it well but he was a little too calm to actually pass the act."

\-\

Over the month Harry and Bonnie ignored each other. No one found out that Harry and Ron had beat up Malfoy because he wouldn't say who did it, and Fish was never in the school. Hermione was noticing something was going on but didn't dare to say anything. Harry was a little touchy these days when you said the wrong thing. He refused to talk about Bonnie at all but he would talk to Ginny if he had to, even though him and Ron were angry with her as well.

Meanwhile, in class, Harry was being removed. He had just had his entire schedule moved around. He stomped angrily down the halls with Sirius and Remus following behind him. He stepped into McGonnagal's class.

"Mr. Potter, would you please explain what you are doing in my classroom?" McGonnagal said.

Harry gave her a note and walked over to an empty seat in the back and shoved himself into his chair. McGonnagal looked at Sirius and Remus to see if it was true. They both just gave a shrug yes. She turned back to the class.

"Okay class, Mr. Potter will be joining the seventh years in their classes. Can I have a volunteer to catch Mr. Potter up?" Every girl in the room raised their hands eagerly. One girl stood up to be easier to notice and the others followed. "Girls,_ sit down_. Ms. Lovegood, would you please tutor Mr. Potter."

"Of course Professor." Harry looked down a few seats to see Luna. He wondered what she was doing in a seventh year class when she was a fifth year.

All the girls sighed and dropped their hands. "Oh please ladies he's a year younger then you. Stop stalking him," McGonnagal said making Sirius and Remus's mouths drop.

"My life is complete. McGonnagal just told someone off."

"Go to the back of the room boys," she said to them. They both smiled amused at her calling them boys and headed to the back of the room.

\-\

Harry sat at one of the tables in the library trying to stay awake while he read from the book in front of him beside Luna. He had read and reread the same line a few million times as he tried to keep his attention off Bonnie on the other side of the room.

"Harry, are you going to pay attention? You're never going to get this if you don't try," she said in her dreamy voice.

"I'm sorry." He turned to his book and then looked up at her to see her looking through the Quibbler. "Aren't you supposed to be tutoring? I could read on my own."

"Apparently not, since you've been reading the same line for a half an hour." She set her magazine on the table.

"What are you reading?"

Luna explained to him about what she was reading, and Harry found more interest in her then in his book. He asked her questions and Luna got excited that he was interested.

Bonnie turned away from Draco and looked across the library at Harry. He was listening intently to Luna explaining things that would be insane to anyone else. Harry just looked happily entertained. He was asking her questions and laughing quietly so he wouldn't interrupt everyone's reading. She missed him and the fact that he could get along with anyone. How he liked to listen to strange people and get their insights on life. It was his big thing to enjoy.

She suddenly went back in time thinking of how he used to sit at the table and talk politics with her father for hours. He would fight with anyone that came to the house in the summer. And he always―

"Bonnie," Draco said beside her. "Are you paying attention?" She snapped out of her daze and noticed Harry was watching her. He turned away and back to Luna. Bonnie turned back to Draco.

\-\

"So Draco, is it all set up?" Voldemort asked as Draco kneeled before him.

"Yes sir. It's all perfect. I have her in the palm of my hand. She's completely in love with Potter and Potter would do just about anything to make sure she's safe. Trust me. He'll come for her."

"Good job Draco. You shall be rewarded greatly if this goes through. Maybe once Potter is dead I'll let you have a little fun with the girl."

Draco smiled and thanked him before he was dismissed.

\-\

Harry walked from the library after a long night of studying Merlin. He was in a bit of shock after reading what he had from that book. He didn't even know if it would ever work because it seemed so impossible for it to be so simple.

"Harry!"

Harry turned around quickly to see Ginny running up to him.

"Harry, have you seen Bonnie? I can't find her anywhere and it's starting to scare me."

"Did you check the Room of Requirements?"

"Harry the last time I saw her she was with Draco. She's got me really scared and I don't know what to do."

"Calm down. I'll find her." He pulled out his cell phone from his back pocket and flipped it open. He pressed the first name in his phone book and waited for someone to pick up. When no one picked up he began to freak out to. He pulled out the marauder's map and held it out to Ginny. "Tap it with your wand and say, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Ginny did as he said and Harry grabbed the map and flipped through it looking for Bonnie. She was currently slipping out of the grounds. He looked up at Ginny. "Ginny, I need you to go up to the commons and tell Ron to tell my dad that Draco Malfoy is taking Bonnie to Voldemort and I'm sorry but I have to go. Can you do that?"

"Harry you can't go by yourself. You should wait for your father and Dumbledore."

"Ginny, trust me. I know what I'm doing. I won't be by myself. But we don't have much time and I need you to go." He then walked away giving her no chance to fight again. He quickly ran down the stairs pulling the cell phone out of his pocket again and putting the map away. He dialed the phone. "Fish. You busy?"

"Well, maybe a little," he said tiredly, sitting up in bed. A half-naked girl from the school next door put her arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck to get him to lie down again.

"Well you have to make your way over to the school. Don't take the floo. Apparate to Hogsmeade."

"Harry," he said.

"Yeah?"

"I lied. I'm really busy."

"Well we have an emergency. Our friend Mr. Malfoy has kidnapped Bonnie and I have a feeling she's going to visit my friend Riddle."

"Who do you want me to bring?" Fish asked quickly, pushing the girl's arms off his shoulders so he could stand up. He began looking around for his pants.

"You, Tim and Tom. You're the most well trained and I won't risk putting anyone else in danger in the first battle."

"Right. Dress normal. Converse. All black. Daggers, coins, trip wires, bombs, a wand, and a sword," Fish listed grabbing his shirt off the floor as Harry ran outside the front doors of Hogwarts and made his way to the forest following the broken path.

"Right. Don't forget to give Tim and Tom the 411 _while_ you're heading over. I'll have to risk using wandless magic in a desperate situation for the first time. That's great! They should have given me back my wand a long time ago."

"I have to put on my pants so I have to hang up. See you in a few minutes."

"Bye." Harry flipped his phone closed and continued through the trees searching for any clue that Bonnie or Draco had been here. He opened his phone again and pulled out the map. Bonnie and Draco had completely left the map. He reached his hand out to thin air and into his fingers appeared the St. Jimmy Stick. He sunk into the brush and went through the trees. He flipped open his phone and pressed Bonnie's number. He knew she always carried around her phone. Either in her bag or her pocket. She never left without it. He looked on the phone. Bonnie and Draco were moving quickly through the forest finding their way to Hogsmeade. Harry apparated from the forest and at the front of Hogsmeade.

Fish, Tim and Tom apparated before him a minute later.

Harry walked over to them. "Take out your wand Fish. And tap the map and say "mischief managed." Fish did as he was told and Harry put the map away. "Okay. They're still somewhere in Hogsmeade. Heading down and out toward the muggle world I'm pretty sure." He handed his phone to Tim who knew coordinates and maps better then him. He thanked God he had put a tracking device in Bonnie's phone.

They followed Bonnie's signal out of Hogsmeade and into muggle London. "I thought Diagon Alley was inside muggle London, not Hogsmeade," Tim asked.

"I think it skips a few places. It kind of makes a hop once you leave Hogsmeade. So now, since apparently Voldy didn't feel enough to teach his death eaters how to apparate, Mr. Malfoy is seeping into the stones of muggle London. Think he's going to attack the Queen? Oh my god. They're going to break the line between muggle and wizard."

"Don't be so dramatic. No one is going to kill the queen. But uh, I'll be sure to check on that," Fish said.

They quickly walked through the dark alleys in London, dark robes hanging off them swiftly blending into the night's darkness. The cobblestone streets were empty besides the few quiet policemen wandering looking for stray troublemakers. One of them passed by and Harry and the boys fell into the shadows before continuing to follow Bonnie's signal.

\-\

Meanwhile back at school, Ron ran over to James's office with Hermione and Ginny running behind him. He threw himself into James's office and Hermione and Ginny fell onto the floor. James, Sirius, Remus and Lily looked up at them strangely. Ron breathed out his first sentence. "Harry… left."

"What!" Lily yelled standing up from her seat on the divan.

"Darling, sit down," James said. "What are you talking about Ron? Isn't he up in the dorms?"

"No. Ginny met up with him in the halls because she couldn't find Bonnie. Harry looked on the map and saw that she was with Draco and heading toward the forbidden forest. I guess Harry kind of freaked and he sent Ginny up to tell me to tell you that he said 'that Draco Malfoy is taking Bonnie to Voldemort and he's sorry but he has to go.'"

"I would have stopped him but he runs really fast," Ginny said. "I tried to tell him that he should wait and tell someone and let them handle it but he wouldn't listen and said he knew what he was doing. He said he wasn't going on his own."

"He probably took Fish. We'll have to go looking for him."

"But where to start?" Sirius asked.

"He's not in Hogwarts grounds at all anymore. He would be far out of Hogsmeade by now," Hermione pointed out.

Lily fell over on the couch and began to cry. James rolled his eyes and went over to her. "Lils, please stop crying. Harry's going to be fine. We'll find him. Don't worry. Come on flower. We'll put you to bed and in the morning Harry will be here alright."

"Don't touch me James. Go find our son or you'll be the first to die!" Lily said angrily, taking on pregnancy hormones.

Ron gave Sirius a confused look. "She's pregnant."

Ron's eyes widened. Lily stood up and walked over to Ginny and Hermione. "Come on girls. We're going to pick out baby names in the hospital wing while the men go find my son. We're going to collect a few sick potions from Madam Pomfrey."

James sighed. "All right. Where do we start?"

\-\

Bonnie woke up confused and disoriented. "Hello." Bonnie looked up into the disgusting face of Voldemort. She held back a scream and moved closer to the floor. "Don't be scared. You'll be fine as long as Potter comes to join me. You have nothing to worry about."

"Harry won't join you," Bonnie said defiantly.

"Oh, not without a little help. But if I threaten your life, he'll have no choice will he?" He kneeled down in front of her. He stroked the side of her cheek with a sickening smile. "I see he's been keeping you for himself. Quite the untouched skin you have."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You don't know?" he smirked. "He's obviously keeping you untouched. Special virgin skin and lips to take home as a prize if he wins the war. He probably doesn't know what he's doing. He'll just say he's protecting you from scum when really, subconsciously, he's keeping you pure so he'll have something pure to play with as a prize. After all his hard work. Not that he'll win so you really have nothing to be disgusted about."

"I'm not disgusted. Because that's not what he's doing. Harry's just over protective."

"So naïve. You are a little more then just pure aren't you? If I kill Harry Potter in this room, you won't be that way anymore. You'll be _my_ consolation prize." He smirked sickeningly at Bonnie's frightened eyes. "Oh you shall be such fun."

\-\

Harry and the guys walked quickly up to a fallen house on the side of South London, their feet tapping on the cobblestones up to the house. Harry backed up against the side of the house. Fish came up beside him while Tim and Tom took the other side. Harry looked above him. "Oh great. What a surprise. Malfoy manor."

They walked up to the door and Harry let the way for Tom, the locksmith. He broke the lock and they all filed in closing the door behind them. "Okay. Check her coordinates."

"According to the phone, she's downstairs. Probably in some kind of cell. I'm pretty sure the Malfoy Manor has been known to have dungeons."

"Goodie. Quick." They heard footsteps and moved themselves into the shadows near the stairs. Harry held up the St. Jimmy stick. A man in black robes and a hood. Harry came out of the shadows. The man turned to say something but Harry was quicker and whacked him in the head with the stick. He hit the floor hard and they all knew he was passed out. "Come on." Harry led them down many flights of stairs until they hit the very bottom.

The stairs led to a long hallway lined with doors. The doors were made of metal with one small barred window. The floors were lined with a dirty tile. Harry walked slowly through the dungeon hallway with the St. Jimmy stick held off the floor at his side. He stopped at the third door and looked through the bars. He stood back and looked at the lock on the handle. He lifted the metal pole and brought it down on the lock breaking it off the handle. He then flung open the door and ran inside.

Bonnie lay sleeping on the floor against the wall, her wrists chained up. They were loosened enough for her to lye on the floor. Harry sighed and ran over to her and kneeled onto the floor beside her. He ran his hand gently through her curls and looked her over.

"Harry. Quickly unchain her. We should get going as quickly as possible."

"Right." He laid his hand on her chained wrist to break the seal but a bang of the door made him stop and turn around. The three boys took a step back around Harry protectively.

Voldemort stood in the doorway with two death eaters and Draco.

"Mr. Potter, how did I know you would come?" Voldemort said in his sneering voice. Fish, Tim and Tom took out their wands. "And brought a group with you this time. All to save a girl you pretend to not love at all. How quaint."

"You're going to let her go Voldemort. There's nothing you need with her."

"Oh but she obviously got me you. And that's all I wanted. Now, you have to make your decision now Potter," he said taking a step forward. The three boys stepped back getting closer together to protect Harry. Harry moved them out of the way to face Voldemort alone. Voldemort smirked. "You can join me and I'll let your little girly friend go. Or you can try to fight me, lose and then I'll kill your girlfriend and your little dork minions."

The three stepped up offended but Harry held out an arm to stop them. "Or, we can do it my way. I'll fight you, win, and I'll take Bonnie with me. Or you can be smart and let Bonnie go. Oh wait. What am I thinking? You're not smart enough to take on an easy offer."

"What are you talking about Potter? You don't even have a wand."

"That's never stopped me before."

Voldemort pulled out his wand and Harry stayed still staring at him with bored eyes. "Going to fight me with a small pole Potter?"

Harry smiled. "Guess we'll have to wait and see, won't we?"

Voldemort sent the killing curse toward him but Harry ducked it and snapped his fingers sending a jet of fire at Voldemort's robes. Meanwhile, the other three were fighting off the death eaters easily. Curse after curse Harry so far was the one to win. Suddenly a curse went off target and over Harry's head to the wall and hit Bonnie square in the chest. "Bonnie!" Being distracted gave Voldemort a chance to hit Harry, but it was only a scratch curse but right in the chest and it seemed to be pretty deep. Harry sent another curse at Voldemort. One of the death eaters was down and Fish headed over to Bonnie and began to rid her of the chains around her wrists. Her breathing was slowing down along with her pulse.

"Bonnie. Hell's Angel, wake up, please." He slowly tried to get her to wake up.

Harry got Voldemort stunned the same time Tim and Tom had their death eaters completely knocked out. Harry ran over to Bonnie and lifted her into his arms. "Bonnie, come on. Wake up," he said quietly, gently shaking her as they made their way out of the dungeon. They walked as quickly as they could and made their way upstairs.

"They must be unstunned by now. As soon as we're out the door we can apparate to Hogwarts," Tim said. Harry nodded and they all walked quickly out of the house. Voldemort was walking out after them and was about to send a curse at them but they apparated away.

They landed on their feet in the center of the hospital wing. Ginny, Hermione and Lily looked up at them surprised.

"You can't apparate inside Hogwarts. Especially if you're a muggle," Hermione said.

The three boys turned to her. "We're not muggles," Fish said.

"I think I understand that now."

They all looked over at Harry who set Bonnie gently on one of the beds. He carefully stroked back her curls. "Bonnie, pet. Please wake up."

Tim, Tom, and Fish kneeled on one knee, then the other and lowered their heads.

The doors to the hospital wing flew open and in walked James, Sirius, Remus and Ron. "We couldn't find him anywhere. He―" They then noticed everyone in the room. "Oh. Never mind. Where's―"

They all looked at Harry kneeled beside one of the beds where Bonnie laid in silence. The whole room was silent.

James walked over quietly and kneeled on the other side and picked up Bonnie's wrist. Her pulse was fading quickly. "Harry she's―"

"She's not dying. She can't. God wouldn't do that to me.

"It was meant for me. If I hadn't ducked she wouldn't have gotten hit."

"Harry―" He went quiet as Bonnie's pulse began to disappear. It then dropped completely and Bonnie stopped breathing.

Harry put his head on Bonnie's hand that he held gently and his eyes started to fill with tears. "Bonnie, I need you. You can't leave me."


	19. Meeting Bonnie: Part I

AN: Sorry about the wait. I wanted to do more editing as I discovered bad sentence structure and the like. But its not awful and I've fixed the majority of it. I just wanted to get everything up. This is the first part of the chapter, I'll put the second part up right after. It was really long and, while I'm sure the whole thing would fit, I don't want anyone to get tired while reading it because the single chapter is so long. I've split it up exactly where I split it up on hpff. Hope you enjoy the chapter where we can all join Harry through his emotional grieving process.

19

Meeting Bonnie

The room was silent as death, which went with their situation. No one spoke. Everyone seemed to be waiting. For what they weren't sure. They couldn't understand what had just happened. It seemed like everything had gone too fast and nothing seemed to be making any sense. Like what was happening wasn't possible. They all tried to soak it in.

They all waited for Harry to say something but he was motionless. His only words, "Bonnie you can't do this," he whispered.

When he realized her pulse wasn't going to suddenly quicken, he stood up. "Merlin, please forgive me for breaking your rule."

He climbed onto the bed, kneeled beside her and stroked her cheek lovingly. His eyes watered and he didn't care that his father was sitting right next to him. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. He carefully put both his hands to her collarbone where she had been hit with the curse.

"Harry," James said warningly.

"I know what I'm doing dad. Go away," he growled.

A pure white light came up out of Bonnie's skin and formed a ball in Harry's cuffed hands. Harry dragged the white light down Bonnie's center to her stomach. "Please work." The white light flashed under Harry's hands and then subsided into Bonnie's skin again.

Everyone watched in silence. Time stood still as they all waited for _something_ to happen. Harry let his tears fall down his cheeks as new ones formed in his eyes. Just as the occupants of the room were giving up home of any change in Bonnie's condition that was when Bonnie's breathed. Her lips parted, her lungs pulling in a large gulp of air in a gasp like she had come up from water.

James jumped away, shocked, backing away from the bed.

Bonnie looked around the room and found Harry. She sat up suddenly in the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck. Harry slowly wrapped his arms around Bonnie, not really believing that he had accomplished it. She was back, clinging to him as though he was the way to keep her regained life.

Merlin's spell to bring people back to life from any curses that caused death. Even the killing curse. Merlin had only used it once to save someone he loved but she died quickly after from a disease. He had taken the spell for granted and forgotten to protect her. Harry wasn't going to do the same.

He reached his hand into her soft curls as she gripped the back of his shirt, apologizing at top speed.

"Harry, I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you. Malfoy was an evil death eater. I'm sorry I didn't listen. I put you in serious danger and myself. I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. Please don't hate me."

Lily was crying hysterically in the background and Hermione and Ginny were trying to hold back tears. James tried to calm her down.

"Bonnie, calm down. It's okay. Lay down alright? You may be alive but you're still really hurt." Bonnie slowly loosened her grip and let Harry lower her onto the bed.

"I'm so sorry Harry," she apologized desperately again.

Harry smiled and stroked her cheek. "It's okay."

Bonnie smiled, completely relieved. "Will you call my dad? I'm sure he'll come if his daughter just beat death," she smiled.

"Yeah." He turned to Fish. "Will one of you pick up the Prime Minister and get him here."

"Tim and Tom, you can go," Fish said. "Bonnie's father hasn't liked me since I tried to shave his head in his sleep."

Tim and Tom rolled their eyes and apparated out of the room. Fish stood from the floor.

"Maybe someone should get Dumbledore and tell him the thousand year old apparation spell is on the fritz," Hermione said.

"It's not. They're just really good at breaking rules and the laws of magic," Harry smiled. He turned his head and whiped the tears off his face with the back of his hand, realizing he was still crying.

Madam Pomfrey came over to him. "If you would like me to check her over you'll have to move."

Harry stood up from the bed and stepped away. He was quickly pulled into a tight hug from his mother. "Oww," Harry whined quietly and Lily pushed him away.

"Harry, you're hurt. Why didn't you tell us sooner? Your shirt is soaked. Quick, grab a bed."

"Mum, I'm fine. It's just a small cut," Harry said stepping away.

"Potter just take the shirt off and let me sow it up. Otherwise you're going to lose too much blood and you can't bring yourself back," Pomfrey said.

"Hey! Doesn't anyone believe in personal space? Step away. I'll do it myself."

"Harry you can't sow up your own stomach," Sirius pointed out.

"Yeah Jimmy. Now isn't the time for your space issues," Fish said. Harry turned to him with a deafening glare. Fish looked down. "I mean he's done it before and now he has magic. Step away, I have a sword," he recited.

"You didn't have to add the threat," Harry said. "I'm going to sow it up myself," he said to the others. He closed the curtain around the bed his mother pushed him to and carefully pulled off his shirt. "Needles, needles everywhere and not a drop of blood," Harry said to himself.

James turned to Fish as Harry was sowing himself up. "I thought you and the other two were squibs?"

"Actually we're muggle born wizards. But our families didn't allow us to go to any magical school or the wizarding world because they believe it to be a strange religion or a large Paganist cult."

"Oh," was all he could think to say.

They all turned as someone hit the floor. "I hate wizard travel," said a tall man standing up off the floor, wearing an expensive suit. His black hair was long and his face was youthful.

"Sorry sir. We're not great at side-apparation. You should be just so lucky you didn't splinch." The man gave them an angry stare before looking around the room. He found his daughter and walked quickly over to her. Bonnie sat up in bed quickly and let her father pull her into a hug.

"What happened?" he asked, setting her back in her covers.

"I was really stupid. I'll tell you later." The man nodded and ran his hands through Bonnie's curls.

The man looked around. "Why are there so many people in the hospital wing?"

"We were all worried," Hermione said.

"Oh. And my wife isn't even here while the rest of you are. Does she know her daughter is in the hospital wing, just come back from…death?" Everyone looked kind of guilty. The man smiled and turned to the three boys. "Could one of you go collect her and bring her down?"

"If we―"

"I'll show you her office," Ginny offered. Her and Fish walked out of the hospital wing.

"We should get going now," said Tim.

"We have to―"

"Get Mrs. Copperfield―"

"Into the water―"

"Bucket―"

"Before she wakes up," they said in unison. "It was nice seeing you sir and we're glad you're okay Bonnie. Bye." They both apparated away.

"Harry, are you okay?" James asked, having not heard a word from his son for a while.

"Almost finished."

"Harry's here?" the man asked. (The man is obviously Bonnie's father, also the Prime Minister.)

"He's giving himself stitches behind the screen."

Harry came out from behind the screen pulling his new shirt down.

"Where did you get the new shirt?" James asked.

"You'll never know," Harry said mysteriously. He walked over to Bonnie's father. "Hello sir," he said holding out his hand.

"St. Jimmy is going to shake my hand?" he asked surprised, ignoring the redness around the boy's eyes.

"I'm sorry. Were you having fun with the bowing?" Harry joked.

"No, I'm excited. I'm shaking St. Jimmy's hand," he joked. "Get over the space issues?" he asked.

"Not entirely, but I'm working on it."

"I hear you've been taking care of my little girl while I've been so busy."

"Well only because you asked me to," Harry joked. "Oh, and before my father does it himself. This is my dad, James Potter, and my mum, Lily Potter."

"Ah yes. I heard you came back to life," he said, shaking James's hand. "It must be nice to have not aged from 22," he laughed.

"Just glorious," James laughed.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Potter," he said shaking her hand.

"And you sir."

"You can call me Cameron."

"Can I call you Cameron?" Harry asked jokingly.

"No."

"Fine, we'll stick to sir."

"Harry, why don't you crawl into bed? It's really late," Lily said. "And you two," she turned to Ron and Hermione, "you should go to bed as well. I'll send Ginny up to Gryffindor tower when she gets back."

"We are back." Mrs. McNeal saw her daughter and ran over quickly. "We should head to bed I guess." Ginny turned to Fish. "Night," she said flirtatiously.

"Night," he smiled. Hermione shoved Ginny out the door. Fish turned away from Ginny to be faced with Harry.

He grabbed the St. Jimmy stick from Fish's hand and whacked the back of Fish's knee.

"Oww!" Fish cried.

"Don't. play with her," he warned.

"I'm not. Geese. I come to you to get away from the beatings and I get whacked with a pole for staring," he whined, grabbing the back of his knee.

"Tell Tim to get me my cell phone back," Harry said.

"I'll mail it to you," Fish said.

"Ha ha."

"Fine, I'll be right back." Fish apparated and Harry waited flipping the stick in his hand. Fish appeared again and ducked as The St. Jimmy stick came whirling at him. "Here. See you again for our next big adventure." He apparated away again.

Harry walked over to his bed and lay down to quickly fall asleep. James watched him for a moment and then sat down in the chair beside his bed. "My son is so weird."

"You've just figured this out?" Cameron asked. "I remember when he was younger and he chased the cooks around the house. Bonnie followed behind. Turned her into a little monster."

"I'm getting a whole lot of mixed signals about my son's childhood," James said as Lily sat down on the other side of Harry's bed and took his hand. "Someone says he was a little ball of fire and others will say he was a perfect little angel."

\-\

"Is it recording?" came Bonnie's voice from behind the camera. "Dad, it's not working!"

Harry flew in front of the camera, followed by Fish, Tim and Tom, running down a hallway; in the background was a screaming woman. No one seemed too bothered by this.

"Of course it's working. Let me see," said Cameron. He took the camera and pointed it at himself. "I think it's working," he said, putting it back down again to point at one of the cooks, a maid and the nanny running down the hallway screaming and holding their skirts up so they didn't trip.

"How do you know?" Bonnie asked.

"Because the red light is blinking. St. Jimmy put that knife down; cook is going to have a heart attack."

Harry lowered the knife before smiling innocently at the camera. He set the knife down on the floor before continuing to run. The screaming continued.

\-\

"I guess he was kind of both. You know he would try to brainwash you in your sleep so you would nominate him Prime Minister. And then he would look at you with those big green eyes, famous Potter grin and call himself St. Jimmy and you couldn't think him anything but a Saint."

"He wanted to be Prime Minister?" James asked.

"It was his dream to take over the world and he thought it would be the easiest place to start," he said. James nodded. "You know we have lots of Harry's childhood at our castle in France. We're going there for Christmas this year and, personally, I would love it if you all joined us."

"Oh, we already made plans with the Weasleys to spend Christmas together."

"Well, if they would like they are welcome to come to. The more the merrier. We have more then enough room. Harry and Bonnie's friends Fish, Tim and Tom all are coming too, along with the Decluers."

"What!" Bonnie asked shooting up in bed.

"Bonnie? I thought you were sleeping," Cameron said, looking down at her from his seat beside her bed.

"I was until you mentioned my arch foe is coming to dinner. Daddy, you can't invite her, she's evil. Last time she came to dinner she told the entire table that I hadn't gotten my period yet and then the next second I was pregnant. She's stupid and a complete bitch. Do you really want to relive that dinner?"

"It's too late darling I've already invited them. And I'm sure Fleur will be very nice at dinner. I'm sure her father doesn't want another incident like last year."

Bonnie slumped back into her pillows. "It's inevitable father. It is now the great family tradition for Fleur and me to spit across the table and test our lowest detesting statements we can think up. One day, I'm going to murder her. And then I will finally win the battle. Because there is nothing more satisfying then a dead Veela at the dinner table."

"You're too nice to kill anyone dear. Save it for Fish."

"I can't. He only wants to steal her hair and sell it on the black market."

\-\

After a long conversation with her father about what had happened to get her to death and then coming back to life and her father and mother bothering over her, tearful, the parents went and took beds on the other side of the room. Harry woke up in the middle of the night after a nightmare of Bonnie dying in his arms and he didn't do anything to save her. He swallowed his quick breathing and looked to his side where Bonnie was sleeping. Across from him everyone was sleeping. Bonnie's father never cared if he and Bonnie slept in the same bed as long as they didn't do anything. He carefully crawled out of bed so he didn't tear his stitches. He walked quietly over to Bonnie's bed.

"Bonnie," he whispered, moving her curls.

"Hmm," she moaned sleepily.

"Scoot over." Bonnie moved onto the other side of her bed letting Harry crawl in with her. When he was under the covers she situated herself. Harry wrapped his arms around tightly as she nuzzled into his chest.

"I'm still sorry," Bonnie whispered to him, her voice muffled by his shirt.

"Shh, it's okay," Harry mumbled, kissing her curls. "It was just a mistake and I know you won't let it happen again. Right?"

"Right." Harry nuzzled into her hair, taking in her scent and pulling her closer to him, keeping her safe from death. "Harry," she said carefully.

"Hmm?"

"Thank you for saving me."

"Thank you for letting me."

\-\

"Harry. Get. Up. Quick. Before Bonnie's father gets up and sees you're sleeping with his daughter. I like being friends with the Prime Minister."

"Dad, go away. It's too early," Harry said, whacking him with his hand.

"It's alright James. I trust him like he was my own son." Harry opened his eyes.

"Sleep by yourself Bonnie. Your father just made me your brother," Harry said, disgruntled. He climbed out of bed and walked over to his own. He threw himself in bed and fell back to sleep. Bonnie moved forward in bed and pulled the part of the pillow that Harry had just been lying on closer to her.

"Lovely work," James complimented.

"It happens all the time."

"Never kicked me out before," Harry said.

"Well before you were only 10 years old."

"Sleepy, sleepy," Harry yawned. He was out like a light in three seconds.

"No more stacking the tea cups," Bonnie mumbled sleepily. The two men looked to her.

Harry laughed in his sleep.

"Don't laugh at my dream Harry. He'll get it."

"Don't set your sights too high Pet," Harry mumbled.

"Are they talking to each other in their sleep?" James asked.

"I really don't know," Cameron said slowly. "Let's go get breakfast. I don't think I've had good British food in a fair few years."

They both left the room. Harry opened one of his eyes to check that they were gone and rolled over to see Bonnie awake too, smiling at him. He crawled out of bed and Bonnie moved back to let him onto her bed again. He put his arm above her head and played with her hair as Bonnie played with the trim of his shirtsleeve.

"Wanna know something you missed out on?" Harry asked.

"Mmm," she mumbled nonsensely, her eyes focused on his chest as her head rested on his shoulder.

"My mum's pregnant."

Bonnie looked up at him. "Are you serious?" Harry nodded. "And how are you feeling about that?"

"Fine I guess. I mean, once the baby is born I won't be here anymore. He'll be my replacement."

"Don't talk like that Harry. I still don't believe you'll die, and neither does anyone else. Stop being so Emo."

"Emo? Really?"

"What are they naming it?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask too many questions. They don't know the sex so maybe they don't have a name either."

"Well I have some good news too. You're sleepin' at my house!" she said, quoting Dennis the Menace. "Your family is coming with us to France for Christmas. We'll get to visit the horses, and the dogs. Oh," her tone fell to disgust; "cousin Fleur is coming for a visit as well. I expect Bill shall be happy he's going to be with his _lovely_ fiancée over Christmas break but by the time break ends the stupid skank Veela will be a skin rug on my bathroom floor."

"That's horrible Bonnie," Harry said, as though he really cared about Fleur.

"Hmm, maybe you're right. She'll probably make some ugly rug." Harry tickled her sides lightly making her giggle. "Well she would."

"Yes she would. Shave her head and send it to a good wig place for cancer patients and Fleur will be so freaked, she'll die of shock."

"Ooh, you've got our spunk back."

"Well the fun of going on a war mission, finally, this year has made me capture it."

"Hey Harry, you know, if you ever get out of this "I'm going to die" phase and decide to have children they'll all be around the same age as your brother or sister."

"Me dying has nothing to do with not having children. I just don't want any."

"Do you ever plan on getting a wife?"

"If I live. I don't plan on living alone for the rest of my life. Or maybe I'll just live alone with Prose."

"Well if you do get a wife, what if she wanted children?"

"I'll get a divorce."

"That's great Harry. You know, I would like to have children. I just can't."

"I know. But you can always adopt. And that means you never have to get married to have children. And you don't have to go through any of the pain."

"I know. My mother told me all the good points of not being able to have children. I'll get some cats. Let's talk about something else. Malfoy told me he won all the Quidditch games cause somehow he knew I don't pay attention to Quidditch. But Malfoy's a big liar so you won both games right?"

"Of course I did. I'm a great captain."

"Good. So, I'm really sorry I was so mean to you the last few weeks. I really don't know what came over me. I guess going somewhere people didn't know me I just thought I would set free for a little while and Draco Malfoy seemed to be the bad boy… I guess I was just being stupid. I'm really sorry."

"Would you stop apologizing?" Harry smiled. "I told you… its okay. I forgive you. You made a mistake and I think dying for a few seconds made you pay for that. I'm not going to punish you for one mistake no matter what the size."

Bonnie smiled and leaned into Harry's chest holding onto the sides of his shirt. Harry pulled her back into his arms and nuzzled into her hair. Bonnie felt, as always, protected and safe in Harry's strong arms. And the scent of him made her feel better, like she wasn't lying in a hospital bed come back from the dead. As long as Harry was there, everything was perfect.

\-\

Harry sat up in bed beside Bonnie as they both chewed on a giant Tootsie Roll.

"Is that all you two are going to eat this week?" Sirius asked, walking into the hospital wing.

"They'regoo'youwaone?" Harry asked quickly.

"I didn't catch a word you said."

"He said, they're good, do you want one?"

"I think that candy makes you hyperactive," Sirius said.

"Itsbeenproven," Harry said, taking another bite of his candy.

Sirius looked to Bonnie. "It's been proven. He gets really hyper and moves really fast when eating American sugar. They fed it to him when he was younger to make him play piano faster. It used to work better when he was younger."

"And now you have a thing for Tootsie Rolls?"

"Ys," Harry said. "Where'sdad?"

"Him and his new best friend the Prime Minister are talking about something or other at the breakfast table," he said, falling onto Harry's empty bed.

"Feeling left out Sirius?" Bonnie asked, smiling.

"No! I just miss my friend. No offense to your father."

"Are you and Remus coming with Harry and everyone to France for Christmas?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

She smiled at Harry sending him a secret message with her eyes. Harry smiled and turned to Sirius. He gulped and waited a few seconds and stretched his jaw. He held out another piece of candy. "Here Padfoot, it will make you feel better."

Sirius took the candy and unwrapped it and joined them, listening to them talk about the house in France. Sirius was about to learn things that no one else would know till they got there. And that's very important when entering the castle in France.

\-\

Bonnie and Harry spent the rest of the week in the hospital wing while everyone else had to go back to classes. The Prime Minister had to go back to work as well. Quidditch was taken over by Ron for the week and Ginny took Harry's spot as seeker. They still won the game anyway. Harry stayed with Bonnie every night, waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares that she had been kidnapped, died, tortured, and worse. He crawled into her bed and held her close to make sure she was still there and he was protecting her.

They missed the trip to Hogsmeade where everyone was going shopping for Christmas presents. So they sat upstairs in bed alone while their friends were outside Christmas shopping or playing in the snow.

Harry's bed was surrounded by 'get well' cards, flowers and candies that had been confiscated even though Harry tried to tell his mother and father that it was just American sugar that made him hyper. ("It's your fault for being a candy addict as a child," his mother had blamed his father for Harry's hyperactive reaction to sugar.)

Harry woke up and felt his bandages needed to be changed. He looked down at Bonnie as she slept peacefully. He resisted the urge to kiss her bare neck as it was in perfect view with her curls pulled back. He gently stroked her skin and crawled out of bed, careful not to wake her up.

He walked over to his own bed and pulled off his shirt. He slowly unbound his bandages and looked over his chest. The scar went right across his abdomen from the top of one side to the bottom of the other. His stitches were holding up well. He redid a spell over it to make sure it didn't scar. He started to wrap up his stomach again.

"Harry!" Bonnie distressed, sitting up in bed. "That looks really bad."

"It's not that bad. It's not even painful. I don't know why it's taking so long to heal. That big bruise on my side during the summer only took about a week."

"Well this is a huge gash in your stomach. Give yourself time. Are you sure that doesn't hurt? You want me to help? They're supposed to be tight."

"No, they're fine."

"Come on. If you don't come over here and let me help I'm going to get out of bed and walk over there," Bonnie threatened, knowing Harry didn't want her to hurt herself getting out of bed.

He walked over to her and gave her the bandages. Bonnie carefully stood up, feeling the cold on her bare feet up to her knees where her little nightgown fell, and continued to bandage up his abdomen. "So you do have a tattoo?" Bonnie said, taking notice of more then just the tattoo as she bandaged him up.

"Yes, I do. Like?"

"It shows just how dedicated to your religion you are. It looks good on you." She pulled the bandages tight making Harry wince and groan. "Sorry." She finished up and fastened the bandages. "There."

"I don't think I'll be able to bend."

"Oh don't complain. They need to be tight. Less chance of your stitches coming out." Harry walked away and grabbed his shirt.

"I'm not complaining. I was just talking. Get back in bed," Harry ordered, noticing she was still standing up. Bonnie sighed but sat down in bed anyway, tucking her legs under the blankets. "Let's hope we're both healed by the time we leave for Christmas so we can ride horses and visit the dogs without them smelling death on us."

"Ha, ha."

\-\

A week later Harry and Bonnie were finally allowed to leave the hospital wing but it was too late. The winter break was starting today and they were all leaving. They all packed up their things and prepared to get on the train. Once they got off the train they would all meet with their parents and climb into a limo. Adults in one and kids in the other. Everyone was coming. The Weasley family, Bonnie of course, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny, Harry's parents, Sirius and Remus, and they would see Fish, Tim and Tom at the house when they got there.

They loaded their things onto the train and had a slow train ride to King's Cross. People heard all about Harry and Bonnie being sick and spent all week in the hospital wing but they didn't know that Bonnie had actually died and come back; so she didn't have anyone asking her a bunch of questions. But the fact that Harry fought Voldemort was only making him more popular.

When they got off the train Harry was quickly huddled by order members as the cameras came as quickly as the lights. He was pushed along and his friends were all moved along quickly as behind him; away from the stupid paparazzi. They were walked outside where muggles were confused by all the cameras and paparazzi taking photographs of a group of kids and in turn were taking photographs of the wizard paparazzi.

They all quickly climbed into the car and the door closed shut on the last one. Harry could hear some of the order members fighting with the camera crews to shove off. Someone patted the top of the car and it took off.

Harry sighed as they finally got away from flashing lights and rested his head in Bonnie's lap. "Well that was fun."

"Yes, the shoving and the large flashing lights. I have a migraine," Hermione said, resting her head on Ron's shoulder.

"My popularity happens to bother me too. Bonnie is there wine in your limos?" Harry asked.

Bonnie grabbed something from the small fridge in the corner and showed it to everyone.

"Anyone want some?"

"I do," Harry said.

"Anyone else?"

"I'll have some," Ron said.

"You go Ron," Harry said.

"You'll have to sit up to drink this Harry. And I have to fix my face. All the flashing lights might have actually given me a tan."

"Not to ruin the party―"

"But there are people in this car―"

"At drinking age―

"And much older then you."

"We must inform you―"

"That we can't allow you―"

"To drink that," said Fred and George.

They all looked up at Fred and George incredulously.

"Just kidding. Pour us a glass too."

Harry sat up so that Bonnie could pour the wine. He took his glass after passing the others to Fred and George. "Are we celebrating something?" Fred asked.

"Nope, drink up," Harry said.

"But we can celebrate something," Bonnie said quickly. She held up her glass. "To… all of us. For getting through classes all the way through so we could be here together today without homework and to Fred and George's joke shop. And for everyone's good health. Except for Bill because he won't be keeping his health now that's he's marrying Fluer." She quickly downed her glass and set it on a tray.

"Cheers," everyone else said taking a sip. Harry downed his. "Now onto the plane."

"What's a plane?" Ginny asked.

\-\

They were to take the plane for an hour to the south of France. The snow would no longer be falling there but it would be warm and around fifty-five degrees. They were all seated in first class being the Prime Minister's guests, though the Prime Minister himself wasn't there. Bonnie said he was still working. Though it was top secret and she wasn't told what he was working on.

Harry and Bonnie sat together at the front and his parents sat in the seat beside them. Behind them was Ron and Hermione followed by Ginny who took over two seats to herself complaining she didn't have a partner but ended up being small enough to lay down on both seats and fall asleep for an hour. And Fred and George sat behind her. Molly and Arthur sat behind James and Lily and Sirius and Remus sat behind them and behind them were Bill and Charlie.

Harry and Bonnie listened to music the whole ride, mouthing along with the words and sometimes turning to each other for a dramatic point in the song. Ron was fascinated with how a plane worked and wouldn't stop looking out the window along with his father, and Hermione was trying to explain to them both and James, who was also excited about flying on something other then a broom, how a plane worked. Then it landed and they were being shoved back into limos.

Bonnie opened the small window between the back and the front seat. "Hi guys," she said to the two men in suits sitting in the front seat.

"Hello Ms. McNeal," the man in the driver's seat answered.

"Can you turn the radio on?" she asked with a smile.

The man sighed and pushed a button and the radio shot out of the speakers. Bonnie moved back in her seat and pushed a button to blast the sounds of "Use it" by the New Pornographers. They all got into the music and the limo was blasting with the sounds Indie and any other type of rock that came out of the radio.

The drivers rolled up the window between them and the kids.

When they began to pull up to the gate of the castle the windows went down to feel the warm weather and see tall metal gates between parts a tall stone wall. The gate said the house was named "Price Manor." Bonnie smiled at the sight of her house gates and shot up through the sunroof.

"Who's Price?" Ron asked Harry.

"That's her father's last name," he said, crawling over to the window. "Her mother kept her maiden name and made Bonnie keep it to, to keep the pureblood, non-muggle name and to keep away from press as her father was getting too much publicity. He was very popular with the government at a young age, the Prime Minister was." He stuck his head out the window. He pulled back in and told Ron to move as he was leaning over him. He climbed out of the car and ran over to the speaker and pressed the button. Bonnie screamed from the sunroof. "Auntie open the gates right now!"

It took a few seconds but the gates opened. Harry pressed the button again. "Thank you!" Bonnie yelled. "Woah!" she screamed as the car began moving.

"Hey!" Harry yelled running to catch up with the car. Ron opened the door and Harry jumped in. "Now the leading up to the castle is the best part," Harry said, as they made their way onto the paved driveway through the garden. Harry pressed a button and all the windows turned into one long window down the sides of the limo which came down. They all looked out at the view. Perfect hedges lined the sides of the wall, perfectly placed gardens were spread out around the lawn and a large, beautifully carved white fountain centered it all.

They then came up to the castle. It was half the size of Hogwarts but still huge. It was a beautiful French castle built with gray stone, with towers at each side. Harry had always joked to Bonnie that it was like the Rose Red house. No one had been murdered yet though.

Bonnie jumped out of the car as her aunt came running out of the castle front doors. She joined her at the door as her aunt pulled her into a hug. "Oh I missed you my little Bonnevilla."

"I missed you to. I haven't seen you since last Christmas. I brought your best friend with me," Bonnie said. Harry pushed his friends out of the car so he could get out. He then walked over to Bonnie's aunt.

She screamed and ran over to Harry and pulled him into a strong hug. She held him tight but pulled away quickly. "Sorry. I know you probably still have that no touching thing but I'm just so happy to see you. I haven't seen you since you were ten. Oh you've gotten so big. Tall wise. You're still as skinny as the St. Jimmy stick Mr. Jesus of Suburbia. I thought Hogwarts would have put some meat on your bones."

"Nope. Still skinny."

"Well, I read the papers. Hottest bachelor. You better not be touching any of those ladies _saint_ Jimmy."

"Oh shush. Speaking of which, Bonnie and I are setting you up!" Harry said quickly.

"What!"

"Oh here comes the rest of the group," Harry said quickly, changing the subject. The others all walked up.

"Hello," she greeted, looking for someone who looked single in the group. "Um, my brother in law is still at work at the moment so I'll be giving you the grand tour instead and show you all to your rooms. Unfortunately, the guest rooms have not been touched since St. Jimmy was last here because he stole all the keys and hid them somewhere in his room and no one would dare go in there to search for them. So while Harry searches his room the rest of us will be having lunch. I'm sure you're all starving. And before you find those keys Harry go collect your friends. They've run rampant in the kitchens terrorizing the cook and the maids. And one of them is threatening to quit because Fish is trying to break the fine china. Go!"

"Man, a few seconds ago you were so happy to see me and now you're making me work. Sheesh," he said sarcastically, walking away from the group.

"I'll go help him search his room," Bonnie offered.

"You have your own room here?" James asked.

"Yes, but you wouldn't want to see it. It's a royal mess and there are multiple pranks blocking just the door."

Sirius, Remus and James smiled and ran to catch up with Harry.

"Fine, we'll just all follow Harry and then we can all get our rooms right after he finds the keys. He does actually have some fine art on his walls. Follow me." They all headed into the house following Harry who had to first go to the kitchens. "This is the kitchen," she said, giving the tour. The kitchen was being terrorized by three boys. One was sitting on the counter watching the other two throw green mush at the cooks and maids. They all stopped with green slop slipping out of their hands onto the floor as they looked at Harry standing at the door.

"What _are_ you doing? I leave you for one week and you're back to being a pack of wild animals."

Tim jumped off the counter and walked over to him and leaned in. "They snuck out to a concert and got a large contact high. They're still a little gone," he whispered. Harry looked to the other two who gave him a stupid smile.

"Where were you?"

"Well I was in the bathroom," Tim said, stepping away to speak normal.

"Hmm. Boys, why don't you drop the green… stuff and get yourself some coffee?" Harry said walking over to them.

"St. Jimmy's angry Tom."

"Guess what concert we went to see."

"Green Day!" Fish yelled. He threw a handful of slop at Harry's face and the two ran for it. Harry shot his hand out at him and they both tripped forward, using his other hand to throw the goop off his face.

"Nice try. Let's go tie you up to a chair in the dining room shall we?" Harry asked picking them up by their collars. As soon as they left the room the kitchen was completely clean. The cooks went back in to a pray. "Oh thank the saint," one said aloud. Harry walked back in as they stood. "Sorry ladies. They won't do that again, I promise."

"Oh, no apologies sir. It's nice to see you again Jimmy," they said giving a curtsey. Harry's St. Jimmy stick formed in his hand and he bowed in greeting like he used to. He stood and the stick disappeared again.

"I have to go find keys," Harry smiled. They all laughed and got back to work. He then walked out of the door past everyone else. "Is everyone coming?"

"We want to see your room," James said.

"No you don't. Everyone should just go to lunch. It'll be fine."

"No, we'll just go see it." Harry sighed and continued up the stairs. He stopped on the third floor and walked down a long corridor. "Oh hell. I don't remember which one is mine. Oh well. Let's all go lunch," Harry said, turning.

"Oh please Harry. It's the second door on the left," Bonnie offered.

"Thanks Bonnie," he said grudgingly. He walked over to his door and stopped. "Are you sure you want to go in there. It's just a bunch of my boring childhood junk. Nothing of real interest for everyone."

"I would love to learn about your childhood Harry. It's the part I missed out on remember?" James asked.

"God, put down the guilt card," Harry said curtly. He turned back to his door and groaned. He opened the door with a wave of his hand and quickly stepped in leaving the door open. The others walked in and looked around the room. The bed was a multiple of different blacks, dark reds, and purples mixed together in the sheets and blankets. The four-poster bed was made of stone. Hanging from the ceiling were rolls of parchment spread out, written down them were Chinese calligraphy and backwards writings and copies of scripture from Da Vinci and other famous people. On the walls around the entire room were beautiful paintings from Renaissance times that no one recognized so Harry must have painted them himself. They were beautiful and perfectly painted to make everything look real if you didn't look closely enough to see the fine brush strokes. The room itself looked quite crowded. His wood floors were littered with papers and pictures. A safe sat at the side of his room in front of the window and beside the fireplace. Tables were placed spontaneously around the room stacked with papers and gadgets and books and oddities. Harry moved over to one of the desks, pulled open the drawer, pulled out the ring of keys and tried to shove everyone out of the room.

"Harry stop. What's with you? Did you paint this?" James asked, motioning to the wall that Harry's bed was against.

"Yeah," Harry sighed.

"Why are you never proud of anything you do?" Sirius asked.

Harry didn't answer and just backed up against the wall as everyone looked over his walls. "I see a lot of knights," James pointed out. He turned to Harry. "Were they just part of the renaissance theme or did you like them."

Harry didn't say anything. He looked away from his room.

"Maybe we should see our rooms now," James offered, leading everyone out, still wondering why Harry didn't like having people appreciate his talents. Harry followed everyone out.

"Now that everyone has finally left my room," he said shutting the door behind him. He handed Bonnie's aunt the keys with an innocent smile.

She smirked and turned away from him. She showed everyone to their rooms, which were all very nice and carefully decorated with everything they would need to accommodate them. "The house elves should be bringing up all your things and putting them in your rooms. Now that we all know which room is ours we should all head down to lunch. I really am starving now."

They all followed her downstairs to a large dining room where Fish and Tom were tied to a chair and Tim was mocking them from the other side of the table.

"Having fun?" Harry asked, sitting down beside Tim.

"If you untie us we will tell you all about our trip to see Green Day. It was an awesome concert. Oh yes. And we all got on the film. They're making this film of their concert and we put our little part in it about you. The true Jesus of Suburbia and they seemed very interested."

"What a surprise. You basically tell everyone on the planet that Green Day stole my name. By the way, are they even talking about the real person?"

"Definitely. We listened to the song very closely and it's definitely you. They even have a song about Bonnie, but they call you Ol' What's Her Name?"

"What's her name?" Bonnie asked, sitting beside Harry as everyone began to sit.

"No, that's what they call her. Ol' What's Her Name."

"Oh, so it's a song about us. Cool. Are you in it?"

"I don't think it's that specific. But the guy in the video really does look like Harry. Has the same hair, he's pale. It's very interesting."

"And where was the part where the two of you got high?" Harry asked.

"We were in the mosh pit. When were we not? It was so awesome though. All the girls were screaming at one point and some of us didn't know what was going on, and then we look up on stage and there's Billy Joe. His hand down his pants masturbating to the crowd. It was so awesome to see someone do that in front of millions of people."

"Could we please not talk about inappropriate things, such as what Billy Joe does with his hand, at the table?" Bonnie's aunt asked.

"Yes ma'am," they said together. Lunch was served quickly and everyone felt better now that they weren't so hungry and everyone was talking again. Bonnie and Harry watched as Sirius kept eyeing Bonnie's aunt out of the corner of his eye.

"Auntie, I'm going to take the "children" out to the stables to see the horses," Bonnie said when they had finished.

"Alright. But don't get too dirty and be back for dinner." They stood and headed out of the dining room (besides Fred and George who had decided to stay with the adults) and they headed outside.

\-\

Bonnie took them out to the stables. They walked inside the dark wood barn and went up to the stalls. Harry ran up to one in particular. "Oh, Mr. Crud you're still alive. I thought you would have died years ago," Harry said, petting the old horse's main.

"Yeah, he got sick a few years back but he just keeps on going. Like the energizer bunny," Bonnie said, going up to another horse as everyone else looked around. "But since you went right up to him, you wouldn't have noticed that Olive and Luchie are now in the same pen. They're going to make little babies aren't you?" she asked the girl horse, petting her main.

"Can we take them out?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. My dad's not here so he can't complain. Everyone can take out a horse." She opened one of the stalls and took out a horse named Chamery.

Harry took out his favorite horse Luchie. "Away from the wife for just a little while Luchie," he said leading him out. "Must be nice to get away once in a while, right?" he whispered. He put on the saddle and jumped onto the horse. He turned to see everyone doing okay with putting on their saddles. They then road out of the barn and onto the dirt land where the horses were trained to do tricks and run. "Hey Bonnie!" Harry called. "I'll race you to the end of the gate!"

"Harry you haven't ridden a horse in five years, don't hurt yourself," Bonnie laughed.

"You're just scared I'll beat you!"

"Fine then, you're on." They both sped up their horses and began to race to the other side of the field. Harry looked over at Bonnie to see her staring determinedly ahead of her. He looked ahead again as they raced to the end.

Harry won.

"You cheated!" Bonnie accused, turning her horse to yell at Harry.

"I did not! I swear Bonnie; you've just lost yourself. You've forgotten that I never lose."

"You big skinny liar."

"How would I cheat Bonnie? You're the scientist."

"I don't know but you cheated!" she said determinedly and turned away from him.

"Sure Bonnie, whatever you say." The others caught up to them.

"You're not wearing helmets. Don't you think racing is a little dangerous?" Hermione asked.

"No," they said as one. Hermione rolled her eyes.

They spent the rest of the day riding horses through the yard until one of the maids or butlers came out to call them in for dinner.

\-\

Meanwhile the adults were conversing over pointless things. Sirius had tried to start up conversation with Bonnie's aunt, but he only found out her name was Jackeline before she realized he was going to try to flirt with her and she turned away to start womanly conversation about Bonnie and Ginny with Mrs. Weasley. Sirius sighed back in his chair and turned to Remus who was laughing quietly at him. Sirius elbowed him hard.

"Oww."

"You don't have a girlfriend over Christmas either," Sirius grudged.

"But Tonks and I promised to exchange presents and things when we get back. She's fine with it."

"You both getting married soon?" Sirius asked interestedly.

"We're still having problems about the whole wolf thing."

"She having second thoughts now?" Sirius asked sadly.

"No…. I am."

"Remmy."

There was a knock at the door and everyone stopped. "That must be the Decluers. They're also joining us for Christmas. I'm sure Bill told you that," said Jackeline.

The four family members came through the doors of the dining room introduced by the butler. Jackeline stood and walked over to them. "Oh how nice of you to make it today," she said, kissing their cheeks. "And how is smallest Decluer daughter?" she asked Fleur's sister. She turned to the others. "I'm sure you've met the Weasley's, Bill's family."

"Ah, yes. Lovely to see you again."

"And also joining us is Mr. and Mrs. Potter."

"Their son couldn't make it. That's too bad," he said, though he didn't sound to upset about it.

"No, St. Jimmy's here. He's out back with the others to visit the horses. You might want to catch up on your reading Philippe. He probably hasn't had a good debate in such a long time."

"He's also probably lost his touch as he got older."

"I'm sure you'll win this time papa," Fleur said walking over and sitting next to Bill. They all took their seats at the table.

"What debates?" James asked.

"Harry liked to debate anyone sitting at the table on his opinions in politics that were going on at the current time. He always won."

"Learn new things everyday," James mumbled.

"Dinner is almost ready miss, shall I proceed to gather the children?" the butler asked.

"Uh yes, and if they've been out on the horses tell them to go upstairs and wash first. The horses haven't had their baths today."

"Yes ma'am."

"So where is Cameron and Ureic?" Mrs. Decluer asked.

"Cameron is at the office working and Ureic is with a patient down in Britain. They should be here for dinner."

\-\

The children were heading up to the castle after the butler came out to tell them dinner was almost ready. They put away the horses and locked them up before heading back in to prepare for dinner.

Harry suddenly felt very devious. He looked to the side where they were heading toward a huge puddle of mud. "Hey Bonnie," he said to distract her. She looked over at him annoyed and screamed as Harry pushed her into the mud. Bonnie screamed from her spot in the mud and sat up as she moved it from her eyes as she was completely covered in it. "Harry! What was that for?"

"I don't know," he shrugged.

Bonnie stood up and didn't bother to wipe any of the mud off. She walked over to Harry slowly and Harry quickly regretted his choice to be spontaneous. "Bonnie I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. Your house has got my brain all out of whack. Bonnie, stop!" Bonnie pulled him over to her by his shirt and shoved him into the mud with her falling in with him to cover him in it.

\-\

They both walked into the house, their feet sticking to the floor as they walked. They came into the dining room and there was a group gasp. "What happened to you?" Jackeline asked.

"Harry decided to be spontaneous and pushed me in the mud," Bonnie said, dramatically.

"Then she pulled me in after her," Harry said, composed.

"Well go upstairs and get cleaned up."

"Why doesn't anyone use cleaning spells?" Sirius asked.

"I haven't got a wand," Harry said grudgingly while passing.

"And take off your shoes before you touch that carpet and don't touch anything," Jackeline yelled.

"What carpet?" they all yelled.

\-\

After they had all gotten cleaned up they headed back to the dining room for dinner. Harry sat across from Mr. Decluer like always and Bonnie sat beside him across from Fleur so they could glare at each other across the table. They both set their eyes on each other and glared without blinking from the moment they sat down at the table.

"So will everyone but Gabrielle be having wine with dinner?" Jackeline asked as the maid came up beside her.

"I won't be," Lily said, excusing the wine as the maid came to her.

"Oh that's too bad," she said. "Not a social drinker?" she asked.

"I would be but wine isn't healthy for the baby," she said touching her stomach.

"You're pregnant? Oh congratulations!" she said, setting down her wine. "How far along are you?"

"Almost four months now."

"And how's Harry feeling about having a sibling?" she asked. They all turned to Harry as he was deeply downing his glass of wine like it was water.

He set his glass down. "I am overjoyed with happiness," he said dully.

"You know, I remember when you loved kids," Bonnie said.

"Yes, when I was one of them," Harry said.

"No! Remember we once did that show for some cancer patients when we were at Victoria's and the professors wanted you to play Mozart on the piano even though the kids were only four. But then you put on this little skit. Those little kids loved you. It was so cute."

"Yes, like I said, I was eight."

"Who acted like a 22 year old. You called your professor a horror right before you got on stage. You know we have it on tape. We should watch it."

"No, that's the one where I got pulled off the stage. And the kid before me was supposed to sing but it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Wasn't he the one who got his lungs hurt during testing? Stupid professors really did ruin one of their prodigies."

"No, that was someone else. He had a cold."

"Anyway!" Jackeline interrupted, knowing the two would babble pointlessly till the end of dinner. "I think it would be a lovely idea. Then Lily and James can see Harry when he was little and _so _cute."

"But you can hardly see me anyway. It's always so blurry and I screamed a lot."

"Only at the end." Harry rolled his eyes and gave in.

The table was set with food and everyone began to eat. "So Saint Jimmy, are we going to have a debate this dinner or will we be saving it for some other time?" Mr. Decluer asked.

"I don't know. You usually start it up. I just find a way to fight with you," Harry said, picking at his food.

Mr. Decluer started up conversation with Bonnie's father about things going on in the wizarding world. Harry would interrupt every once-in-a-while and debate with them. And then win before quietly going back to his dinner, apparently annoying the heck out of Mr. Decluer.

\-\

After dinner they all headed into the movie room and grabbed a seat around the television. Gabrielle sat close to the television but was pulled back by her mother as she struggled to get closer to it.

"Do we really have to watch this? It's just me, standing on a stage using a bunch of swear words in front of young cancer patients. It's not very fun to watch for everyone else," Harry said about to stand up.

"Oh come on Harry, I love this one. This is the one where you get chased. I love watching the guards run," she smiled.

"Me to," Harry sighed, giving in for the running guards. Cameron found the tape and put it in and turned on the television. The screen came into focus and a large auditorium came into view. The background noise was filled with whispering and the echoing sound of Cameron moving the camera around. Curtains were pulled back and the room was full of parents, family, relatives, and scouts looking for kids to put in their movies.

"Oh look. There's your aunt and uncle," Bonnie pointed out, as the camera scanned the crowd of people. Vernon was taking up two seats and Petunia was beside him with a fidgety Dudley.

"I thought they didn't like you?" Hermione asked.

"They don't. But they came to this one performance because of the government. Or Bonnie's father more like. See, there's Social Services a few seats behind them. Same people who didn't get to me before the prodigy people. I was headed to St. Brutis's when my teachers discovered I was a prodigy."

The film turned to the stage as a small boy in a top hat was beginning his act. Harry gasped. "Hey Hermione," Harry said, putting his arm around her shoulder, "tell me if you recognize the person at the stage."

"A disgrace to the wizarding world obviously," Sirius said, watching the boy do fake magic out of his hat.

"I don't know who went to your school Harry," she sighed.

"You should know. You went to the Yule Ball with him. Ladies and gentlemen, the boy in the suit pulling a rabbit out of his hat is none other then the famous Victor Krum."

"But his father is a pureblood!" James said. "Why is he here? Doing a fake magic trick," James asked.

"His parents thought he was going to be a squib and they were trying to build up his self-esteem," Bonnie said.

"You dated him 'Mionie. Bet this makes Ron feel a whole lot better," Harry said.

"Oh, everyone shush. Harry's coming up," Bonnie said.

"Let's turn it off," Harry said, standing up.

"Oh hush," Bonnie reprimanded, pulling him onto the couch.

They turned toward the television. A tall woman stood at the front of the stage talking to a crowd of sick children who didn't seem very interested in her and some were talking and giggling despite their parents.

"Our next performer will be playing a piece by Mozart for you. Next up is Mr. Harry Potter."

"Its St. Jimmy you horror!" Harry yelled from behind the corner.

The woman glared at him. "Why you little ―" Someone in the crowd coughed. "St. Jimmy," she said slowly. She walked angrily off the stage as Harry walked out from behind the curtain.

He was like a miniature version of himself now. His hair was messed, he was missing glasses and his eyes sparkled like sunlight on water. He had a big famous Potter grin on; a black hoodie that had the words "Jesus of Suburbia" fixed on the back. He carried the St. Jimmy stick in his hand as though he never let it go. He wore a pair of black trousers with worn hightops and strangely striped socks. He wore some light lip-gloss and eyeliner to make his eyes look bigger then they already were.

He walked center stage and smiled at the crowd of children who quickly quieted at his presence, as though just his presence demanded their respect and silence. They were all lured to him and sat at the edge of their seats waiting for what he was going to say.

"Hi. So, I was supposed to, as the professors wanted, play Mozart, but you're all what… six-years-old? Well I'm eight and I don't enjoy Mozart, I just play it."

The kids laughed.

"So instead of that I'm going to tell you all a short story. Stories are the way, a passage to the soul. And though this may be a simple one, every story told has a meaning and a reason to be told. Mine is to upset the professors and make the presentation enjoyable. So get comfortable and I hope you enjoy." He stood still and dropped his head. The lights went dark and the spotlight went on.

They watched Harry's performance on the edge of their seats. Their parents gasping at some of the things that came from Harry's eight-year-old mouth. The kids would laugh at him and smile brightly as if they had never heard anything like it.

On the other side of the television parents were again shocked at the things coming from Harry's tiny innocent mouth. The kids were laughing. Gabrielle was sitting on the floor amused by the television. Captivated by the sound of Harry's voice.

Harry looked at his father to find him thoroughly amused and not disappointed, as he feared. He smiled and looked back at mini-him.

"No doctor! Don't do it!" Harry said to an imaginary person. He then turned into them and turned to him.

"I have to Jack. You're just too dangerous to keep." He made a loud gunshot and Harry stood stiff, staring at the invisible doctor as Jack. He then dropped without shifting onto the floor. He fell with a large boom making the crowd gasp.

"I'm dead by the way," he pointed out, his eyes shooting open. Then dropped his head again and closed his eyes again. The kids laughed. Harry got to his feet, turned and fell to his knees dramatically beside an invisible body.

"Doctor, how could you? He's hurt!" the woman said hysterically.

Harry was lying on the floor again. "Are you insane bitch? I'm dead!" He closed his eyes again and rested his head back onto the floor. "And make sure I'm buried under a tree. I don't want a tan while I'm decomposing."

"But you just spoke. How are you dead?"

"It's a strange plot twist! Just die!" Harry said to himself.

"Oh! yes. Oh!" he cried dramatically, "I can't live without him. I must die." She fell back on her knees and died. "Oh right, I have to do something." He shoved the side of his fist into his chest and died. He moved again, and again, before he finally went limp.

The kids cheered joyously.

"Hey!" Harry yelled standing. The kids stopped. "Doesn't anyone want to know what happened to the doctor?" There was silence. "The answer is no! He 'killed' someone! We're just gonna hope some big gorilla ate him." He took a bow and the kids clapped with joy again. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. You're a beautiful audience. I'll be signing autographs after the show. I'll buy everyone an ice cream."

"That's enough Potter!" said the woman coming back on stage.

"Stay for the ice cream!" Harry yelled as she pushed him away. "Stop touching me you horror!" he said to the woman. "I'll call social services. They're right up in the stands over there," he said pointing to the crowd. He was pushed behind the curtain as the applause faded.

The woman returned again to address the audience. "Now onto the real talents." The clapping started again and she smiled but then realized that they were facing the edge of the stage. She turned to Harry as he bowed and spoke wordlessly to the crowd.

Harry saw her angry face and stilled. "I forgot my stick." He walked to the back of the stage and took the stick slowly as the crowd went silent. He headed back to his professor telling the kids to be quiet with one finger against his lips. He pulled the stick up like a bat and brought it down behind her, under her kneecaps. The woman screamed and fell.

"Potter!" she yelled. Harry ran for it but was stopped by two large guards. He kept running toward them, slid onto the floor under their legs and brought the St. Jimmy stick up and whacked them between the legs. The two men fell forward and Harry stood in front of the crowd gathering their applause. He looked to the side where two new guards were coming at him in a run.

"Oh shit." He began to run off the stage chased by two men.

The film shook and shut off.

"Was that all part of the act?" Hermione asked.

"No, I was just a really strange child."

"And the fact that you ate out of the sugar bowl had nothing to do with it," Bonnie said.

"It was normal sugar and it was just a small bit, and I love to watch the guards run. It's like a calming draught. Though if they can't keep up with me it makes me wonder how they got their jobs."

"They were cheap. They paid off the principal. They can't make all their money from selling us. Plus I'm sure they weren't expecting you."

"You mean selling Harry!" Fluer said.

"Fluer, if you say one more thing to me this entire vacation, I'll shave your head. Sleeping or awake."

"That's nice Bonnie," Harry said patting her knee.

"What did Bonnie do for her act?"

"I wasn't allowed on stage. I poisoned my chemistry teacher and she went bald."

"Hey, there's another film on this tape," Ron said.

"Can we turn it off now? In a few minutes it'll be over, I'll go whack some people in the head as I run insanely down the hallway of the school with Bonnie," Harry said.

Cameron went forward and turned it off.


	20. Meeting Bonnie: Part II

Part II: Meeting Bonnie

After the show everyone was tired and began to head up to bed. Harry grabbed Bonnie's wrist as she went to follow Ginny up to their rooms. He motioned for Ginny to go along as he took Bonnie. Ginny smiled to herself heading up the stairs.

"What is it Harry?" Bonnie asked. She gave a light yawn.

"Come with me," he ordered her calmly. He pulled her along out of the room. He took her to the back and snuck into the back yard. Harry pulled her along, ignoring the fact that she was confused, and pulled her into the garden of roses as she looked around the back yard seeing how beautiful it looked outside with all the stars lighting the garden.

He pulled her down to sit with him. Bonnie looked around the garden smiling but still confused as to why she was here. She turned back to Harry who had lowered his head as if preparing himself for something. "Harry what are we doing outside? It's almost 11 o'clock and―"

As she looked up from her watch she was caught with the feel of Harry's lips pressed against her own. She closed her eyes but couldn't think what to do. She was being kissed, that had never happened before. And by her best friend, her leader, St. Jimmy,_ the_ Harry Potter, whom she didn't think would ever want her the way she wanted him when he could have any girl in the world who all wanted him the way she wanted him. She didn't have any longer to think about what she should be doing because Harry pulled his lips away and moved away from her.

"What ar―"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I should have said something first. I just for some reason thought that you liked me back. That way."

"Harry―"

"You can go to bed if you want. I'm really sorry. I brought you all the way out here―"

"Harry!" she stopped him. "Would you be quiet for one second? I do like you."

"Oh…what?"

"I do like you. A lot. I always have."

"But you didn't kiss me back."

"I was surprised. I didn't know what to do," she said, embarrassed, looking down.

"Kiss back," he said with a smile.

Before she could respond Harry leaned in again, reaching his hand behind her to run his fingers into her curls and brought her lips up to his again and pressed into them. Bonnie pressed her lips back onto his, trying her natural instinct to kiss him back.

Harry put his hands moved down to her neck, stroking the line of her jaw with his thumb. He realized Bonnie still didn't know what she was doing. She was completely innocent when it came to kissing as she had never been kissed before. Though that was of his own doing. "Separate your lips pet," he said against her lips.

She paused but moved her lips apart just a bit. Harry smiled against her lips and pressed his tongue against her bottom lip and tried to slip into her mouth.

Bonnie's eyes shot open and she pulled away, pushing her hands against his chest. "St. Jimmy! What are you doing?"

"Kissing, what are you doing?" Harry joked.

"But you… your… in my…"

Harry smiled at her naïve. "Pet, trust me. I'm not going to hurt you."

"But you―"

"You'll like it, I promise. Just go with it." He led her into another kiss and pulled her in. She was stiff and tense, unsure where to put her hands so they just stayed motionless on his collarbone between them. She separated her lips and felt Harry slip his tongue into her mouth again, pulling her closer to him. She moaned into his mouth, feeling the heat move through her body as Harry searched her mouth. She moved her own tongue over his noticing how he tasted of sweet wine and smelled of warm cologne.

Harry slowly pushed her onto her back into the roses as she moved her arms around his neck. Harry gently pulled out of the kiss and looked down at her. She slowly lowered her arms from around his neck and let them lay in the flowers beside her. "I love you."

Bonnie smiled happily. "You were only a little obvious. What took so long? I thought it would never happen. I thought I was delusional."

"I was trying to keep you safe. I thought if everyone I loved was getting killed, if I ever let it be known that I loved you as more then a friend, Voldemort would go after you. Well I guess I wasn't doing a very good job because he went for you anyway. So my newest plan to keep you safe, is to keep you as close to me as I can."

"Sounds like a good plan to me. So I'm not going to be one of your week long girlfriends that you're soon to get rid of."

"Never. I'm keeping you now that I have you," he smiled.

"Good, cause you won't be able to get rid of me now. I'm going to follow you everywhere like a lost puppy or one of your loser fans. Who will now have to get over the fact that you'll never be single again."

"Well who cares about them."

"Good answer."

They both smiled as Harry ran his fingers into her curls. He leaned in and kissed her gently. "You know if you ever don't like it you just have to say stop."

"I enjoy it. You taste like wine. I was just freaked. You stuck your tongue in my mouth without warning."

"Sorry. Next time I will warn you."

"You don't have to, it may ruin the moment. But I must compliment you on your choice in location."

"You've made me worship the smell of roses." He kissed her again, but this time on the neck, taking in her scent and sending shivers over Bonnie's spine. (Good ones.) "But we should get going. We stay out here too long people will start to wonder where we've gone."

"Are you going to stay with me still? Like we always do? I swear all the summers and winters you stayed here I don't think you ever slept in your own bed."

"You think your father will appreciate that?" he asked, sitting up and pulling her with him.

"He's never cared before." They both stood and started walking from the garden.

"He did in the hospital wing."

"Well how will he find out? He doesn't come to our rooms in the morning to wake us up. Just lock your door in case your father decides to get you. He can be spontaneous."

Harry lifted her hand and laced their fingers together. They headed into the house and Harry dropped her hand.

"And what are you two doing out in the garden?" asked Bonnie's aunt, standing in the doorway.

"Nothing," they said together.

"Don't worry. I won't tell that you've finally stopped hiding and you're going out. You can tell everyone in your own good time. But let me just be the first to say congratulations."

"Thanks," Bonnie said.

Harry stayed quiet still feeling like he had been caught.

"You should go to bed now."

They both nodded and left her as she closed the doors to the gardens. Harry took her hand again and they both went up to Bonnie's room. A giant rose was painted across her wall, the signature at the bottom, Himself. Her whole room was like a shrine to the 1920's.

"Why don't we ever stay in my room?" Harry asked, walking over slowly and falling down on her bed.

"Because you're the one who didn't like sleeping alone. So you always crawled into my bed," Bonnie said from her closet.

"Let's stay in my room tonight," he said, sitting up and turning to her.

"I'm sorry Harry, but your room scares me. One of those knives hanging around your bed may drop and stab me while I'm sleeping."

"It will not."

"How would you know? You've never slept there either."

Harry sighed and snapped his fingers changing his clothes to something for bed. Bonnie climbed onto the bed and under the covers in her pajamas. "We are going to have the strangest relationship ever known to mankind," Harry said.

"Why do you say that?"

Harry crawled over to her and dropped his head on her shoulder. "Well think about it. _You_ are the Prime Minister's daughter. He runs muggle Britain. Me… I am the warrior for the wizarding world, and soon to be muggle world the way things are going. The Savior and the Prime Minister's Daughter, dating. It would make a great headline for the desperate newspapers. Now that Malfoy is not able to be in the running for Hottest Bachelor of the Year. That's not going to be fun for the papers to watch but our relationship sure is."

"Only once they've found out."

"Which would be once we get back to school. There's no stopping it."

"Well we don't care right? It doesn't make a difference. You're pretty good at staying away from reporters anyway."

"That's true." He started to get under the covers until Bonnie stopped him.

"Harry, before you get comfortable… can I see your tattoo?"

"Right _now_?" he whined. "You already saw it."

"Well I didn't get to get a good look at it. And all your friends have gotten to see it. Please."

"You can't, it's covered by the bandages at the moment."

"And when was the last time you changed them?"

"…Two days ago."

"Let me rebind them. I won't have you bleeding on my bed."

"That's just your excuse to get me to take my shirt off."

"But it's a good one," she said, moving him off her bed and crawling off after him. Harry rolled his eyes and pulled off his shirt. Bonnie smiled at getting her way and unclipped the bindings. She pulled away the bindings as Harry kept his arms out of the way. She watched the cross on his back come into view as the bindings were taken away. It was a cross, detailed and beautiful on the lower part of his back, a little to the left. She slowly and gently traced the line down his spine as she took it in.

Harry closed his eyes as Bonnie's fingers caressed his spine. She walked in front of him stroking his shoulders as she made her way around. He felt her fingers trace the gold chain and cross around his neck and her hands caress his bare chest and stomach, fingering the line down the center of his abdomen.

"Harry," she said, staring at his chest.

"Hmm?" he whimpered.

Bonnie looked up at him and saw his eyes closed, enjoying her caress. She smiled up at him though he couldn't see it. "Your scar is gone."

His eyes opened and he looked down. "Ooh goodie. No scarring." He looked at her. "Can we go to bed now?"

"Yeah." She leaned up to catch his lips. Harry leaned down to help her and kissed her back. "That's so unfair that I can't sneak a kiss on you. I remember a time when I was taller then you."

"Didn't last long did it?"

She pouted at him and put her hands on his waist and as far as she could get standing on her toes was his jaw. She kissed his neck and went over his shoulders slowly letting off her toes as she moved down his chest.

Harry moaned. "Bonnie, slow down," he said moving away and holding her at arms length.

"I thought you didn't mind me touching you."

"I don't. But we should slow down, okay? A half hour ago you didn't know how to kiss."

"I was just surprised!" she said defended.

"Let's just go to bed."

"Alright," she sighed, letting him pull her over to the bed. She crawled onto it and under the sheets. Harry pulled on his shirt and crawled back into bed beside her. Bonnie cuddled into his chest and curled up in his arms as he ran his fingers into her hair. He rested his head on hers and kissed her hair taking in the scent of roses.

"Your cologne smells good," Bonnie mumbled.

"I'm not wearing any."

"Then you're wearing really strong soap."

Harry laughed. "And you smell like roses every single time I hold you. I've loved that. Ever since I found out you bottled your own perfume from that rose water. It's the first thing that made me attracted to you."

"Well thank God for roses."

\-\

The next morning Harry woke to the beautiful smell of roses. He slowly opened his eyes to let his eyelashes brush against Bonnie's bare skin. He was nuzzled into her neck as she had curled herself up into him as he spooned her. He pulled her closer and took in her scent. He slowly kissed her neck and shoulder breathing her in.

Bonnie moaned and woke up feeling Harry's lips on her neck. She sunk into Harry's arms and slowly turned over to face him. "Morning boyfriend."

"That's not going to be my new name now is it?" he smiled.

"No."

Harry smiled at her again and leaned in to kiss her lovingly. "Morning."

"So what are we doing today?"

"I think we should go to the pool. Now that I don't have my scar."

"We'll talk it over with everyone."

There was a yell from the hallway and Harry jumped out of bed and opened the door to run into the hallway. His father was standing in the hallway with his mum and Sirius ran out of his room after.

"Harry, I told you to keep your stupid snake away from me," James said.

"He's not stupid, he's my friend," Harry said kneeling on the floor to collect Prose. "Aren't you Prose? Father's just being an _arse_ because it's early. He's not going to hurt you dad. Maybe he just likes you." He headed back into his room missing his father's angered face.

"James, stop growling. You insulted his pet. Leave it alone," Lily said.

"He knows I don't like snakes."

"Well you know he can't completely control it. He was asleep, and it's complicated to put something in a cage that you can talk to. What do you want to do? Ground him? It's not like he sent it on you."

"He might have. And he called his own father an arse."

"Well you are an arse. Now let's go back to bed." She dragged him back to bed as Sirius stared suspiciously at the room Harry just entered before slowly going back into his own room.

Harry closed the door behind him and headed back over to Bonnie.

"What was that about?" Bonnie asked as he sat down.

"Prose snuck into my parent's bedroom. My dad actually seemed angry with me. That's never happened before."

"Aww, you're having your first problems with your parents. That's so cute."

"No it's not. I didn't do anything to him."

"Well you have been kind of grumpy every time he talks to you."

"I have not!" he said turning to her. Bonnie raised her eyebrows. "I haven't."

"Harry every time he asks you a question about yourself or tries to get to know you or tries to be proud of you even you just ignore him or give him a snotty comment. You were being nice until school started. You can't still have a grudge against him for putting you in detention."

"I don't have a grudge against him. And I'm not being mean to him."

"When we first got here he asked you about the paintings on your walls, trying to show you he was interested in your painting and stuff. You just stood there and ignored him. And ever since he knew you were a prodigy he's wanted to hear you play a piano but you're acting stuck up and you don't want to play in front of your father. He's been trying and you just slow everything down."

"Well I didn't notice I was doing it. Sorry," he said rudely. He lay back resting his head on her legs beneath the blanket.

"So notice it now. Next time your dad asks you a question answer nicely, even if it is about painting. And you should play piano for your parents. I'm sure they'd love to hear. Every parent loves to be proud of their child."

"Everything I say is going to come out stupid. I was a strange child Bonnie."

"You were not. You were the most interesting child to ever live. Your father would love to hear about all you did knowing he was a little prankster himself. He can claim you got it from him. Which you might have if it's hereditary."

"Goodie." He turned to Prose. "_Prose you can't go into father's room. Apparently he doesn't like you. You scare him_."

"_I didn't mean to master. I was out hunting and I thought it was your room_."

"_That's okay. He just overreacted. You go back to my room. It's right next door._" He set Prose on the floor and watched him slither through the doorway. He moved back under the covers and pulled Bonnie to him again. He kissed her shoulders and her neck listening and feeling her trying to hold back her moans. He moved her onto her back beneath him and pulled in her lips. His hand was still resting on her stomach. He pulled away. "We should get dressed and go down to breakfast. Right?" he asked sneakily.

"I'll wear pink."

"Great." He gave her a light kiss on the lips and moved off the bed. "I'll meet you in the hallway in a few minutes." He left her room as she crawled out of bed and went to her closet to find a pink outfit.

Harry headed into his room and sighed. He didn't want to tell his father about why there were knights on his wall just incase his father thought it was a stupid dream. He didn't want to seem weird to him and so far he wasn't doing a very good job.

He went over to his bed and looked at the shined and polished knives and daggers hanging by string from the pole that connected the four posters. He slid his finger over the edge of the knife with remembrance of how he had last used it. Nine years old chasing the Minister's assistants down the halls. But he hadn't been the Minister back then.

He walked away and went over to his closet where his clothes had already been taken from his trunk and put in next to his old clothes. He smiled pulling out one of his old outfits. A black sweater with buttons on the shoulder with the British flag and "Down With Brittney!" On the back was the name Jesus of Suburbia. He used to wear it all the time and put his hood up while wearing black eyeliner and look very "Emo." He put it back and pulled out a pair of black jeans and a studded belt. He pulled on his really tight pants and pulled on his belt as tight as it would go only to find there wasn't a hole to hook it. Harry sighed. "Great. I've gotten skinnier." He buckled it to the last hole on his belt leaving his pants slightly baggy. He pulled on a long sleeved black shirt and headed to his bathroom. He looked around the deep blue painted bathroom. His scale sat on the floor by the tub. He pulled off his belt as it weighed almost five pounds and stepped onto the scale. It stopped quickly. "105. Great, now I finally weigh less then Bonnie," he said frustrated. He sighed angrily and went over to the counter to brush his teeth while sitting on the counter. "Now I'll actually have to eat," he said through his toothbrush. "Or Voldemort will be able to crack me in half with his pinky."

He jumped off his counter and put back on his belt and slid on his shoes before heading out of his room to meet up with Bonnie in the hall.

"What took you so long?" she asked.

"My pants don't fit too well for some reason."

"Did you gain weight?" she asked excitedly.

"No actually I lost some," he said quietly.

"How much?"

"… Ten pounds."

"Harry that cannot be healthy!" she said angrily.

"Well I'm sorry. It's something I can't help. It just happened."

"No, you just don't eat enough. I'm going to watch you and if you don't eat everything on your plate at breakfast, I'm going to shove it down your throat."

"That's not healthy either!"

"It's healthier," she said stubbornly. She slipped her hand into his and they walked together down the hall. They walked into the dining room and dropped their hands. Both their parents were there already along with Ron and Hermione who looked really angry they had decided to get up so early but found interest in each other.

"Why is everyone up so early?" Harry asked, going over to the table.

"I couldn't get back to sleep with the fear that your snake would come into my room and strangle me," James said seriously.

"He won't strangle you. Prose is a good snake. He's upstairs right now listening to "Unwritten," he said sitting down at the table. "And what about you two?" he asked Ron and Hermione.

"I was hungry," Ron said.

"Ah."

"And what will everyone be doing today?" Bonnie's father asked.

"I need to buy new pants," Harry said, tugging at the ones he was wearing.

"No you don't. You're going to gain all that weight back until you fit into those pants again. I'll go tell the cook to make you a very large breakfast." Bonnie stood from the table and headed into the kitchen.

"I don't need food I need some kind of pill," Harry mumbled to himself.

"You're losing weight?" Lily asked. "That can't be healthy, how much have you lost?"

"One… five… ten pounds," he said quietly.

"Are you eating at all?" Hermione asked.

"I'm fine! In a few days it'll go back up again," Harry lied.

"So since you aren't buying pants what are you doing today?" Cameron asked.

"We thought we would go swimming if everyone else agreed. What are all of you going to do?"

"Don't know."

"Auntie says she wanted to take the women shopping," Bonnie said walking back in.

"When did you find this out?" her father asked.

"Just now. She's in the kitchen." She sat down beside Harry. "I told the cooks to make you a large breakfast."

"Then you can't make me eat all of it. I'll get sick."

"No you won't. Your stomach can handle it. You've got to prep for Christmas. You know how much we eat."

"Fine." He sighed and looked at the table. "Everyone sleep well?" Harry asked plainly, standing up all his silverware on their ends.

"Fine," they all said.

Everyone else seemed to gather into the dining room in the next minute and sat down at the table. Fleur sat down across from Bonnie who glared at her for her comment last night making the fight begin. Bonnie slipped the grape out of the bowl beside her and slipped it into her mouth without continuing to swallow. As Fleur was turning away from Bill back to her breakfast Bonnie hawked the grape at her forehead hitting straight on.

"Score," she said quietly.

"You little twit. You have absolutely no manners," Fleur said.

"And you do."

"I tried to teach you something while we were at school together cousin but you just wouldn't listen."

"And telling your friends to shove me in a closet is really showing how well-mannered _you_ are."

"You were poisoning our drinks!"

"You shouldn't care so much about what you look like when there's no way to disguise your ugly black heart."

"You shouldn't talk about hiding looks when you won't let anyone see you until you curl your hair in the morning."

"I do not curl my hair you Veela wench."

"Your hair isn't real you infertile bitch."

"Yes it is you fat Veela cow that slept with every guy in Durmstrang," she said standing up.

"Slut!" She joined standing.

"Girl who gave herself to Victor Krum!"

"Bonnie and Harry are _sleeping_ together!"

Everyone sitting at the table felt their jaw drop with their silverware.

"Are not!" Bonnie returned after a seconds pause.

"Are too. I saw you making out outside. And Aunt Jackeline saw it too."

The whole table turned to Jackeline except Harry who was looking at the table.

"They're not sleeping together. They just kissed," she confessed, giving a breathy laugh at the nerving situation.

"Well they could have done more knowing how Potter works."

"Hey!" Harry yelled. He stood out of his chair and almost climbed onto the table to attack her. Fish got to him first and had to drag him onto the floor to stop him from killing Fleur.

"Fleur that is uncalled for!" Cameron said. "You say one more thing you'll be spending the day in your room!"

Fleur turned to her father who didn't have any argument against it. She groaned and fell back into her seat beside Bill who didn't seem too happy with her either.

Cameron turned to Harry. "Harry," Fish let Harry up off the floor as Harry shoved him off, "I know you love my daughter. But personally I don't want to see anything but holding hands in this house between the two of you."

"Yes sir."

"And you can sleep in your own room."

"Yes sir."

Cameron sat back down and so did Bonnie and Harry. Conversation began around the table again and Harry was free to lean across the table and whisper to Fleur.

"Just remember. I can steel the keys to your room and I won't stop Fish the next time he decides he wants sell your hair on the black market." He smiled as Fleur's eyes widened in fear. Harry leaned back in his seat as one of the maids brought his breakfast to the table.

He looked down at his food. "Bonnie I can't eat all of this."

"Try anyway. Or you're not going swimming."

"You can't stop me."

"I can if I want to."

Harry glared at her and slowly picked at his food, sending a piece to his mouth every few minutes. Everyone continued to leave the table and the kids all agreed to go swimming. While the others were getting into swim trunks and bathing suits Harry sat at the table beside Bonnie who was being persistent in him eating everything on his plate. He could only pick at it sadly knowing he wouldn't be able to down it all. It would make him sick.

James across the table kissed his wife on the cheek as she left the table. James walked over to his son and sat on the other side of him. "Still having a hard time?"

"She's pushy," Harry said, nodding at Bonnie. Bonnie rolled her eyes taking a sip of her orange juice.

"You know, an easy way to get food down when you know you can't eat anymore without getting sick. Hold your nose."

"It's not the taste."

"No, it works trust me. My family's cook was the master of over cooking. There was always too much food. And as much as I liked to eat it never went down easy. Just hold your nose and you won't feel it piling up in your stomach. Trust me." He smiled at him and shuffled his hair as he stood. "Have fun."

Harry watched him leave then looked down at his food. Feeling he would take anything, he plugged his nose and shoved in a fork full of food. It worked. He finished off his plate and turned to Bonnie with a smile.

"We can go now _mother_," he joked.

"What?" She looked at his plate. She gasped. "You ate it all. Take your father's advice?"

"Yeah. That was nice of him. Let's go get ready to jump in the pool."

"You have to wait an hour after you eat!" she yelled as he pulled her along.

"Oh shut up!"

They ran upstairs and changed into their swimsuits and met up with the others in the pool house. Harry was wearing a T-shirt and long swim trunks. Bonnie was wearing a full, weightless red robe covering her whole body.

The others just wore their bathing suits, besides Hermione who was wearing a skirt and T-shirt.

"I thought you and Bonnie didn't go out in the sun?" Ron asked.

"Ron, you've seen me go out in the sun. Triwizard Tournament I went swimming. It's Bonnie who covers herself in her own specially made sun screen that doesn't let any sunlight into her skin."

"Don't pick on me. Hermione, aren't you going in?" she asked moving over to the counter in the kitchen and reaching below the sink.

"Oh I just thought I would sit by the pool," she smiled.

"Why?" Bonnie asked, standing up robeless starting to lotion herself up.

The boys mouths dropped. Hermione looked over Bonnie and her self-esteem got lower.

"I don't like swimming," Hermione lied. Bonnie shrugged and put back on her robe and walked back over to Harry to drag him along.

Harry smacked Fish's shoulder as they headed out. "Don't stare at my girlfriend."

Fish turned around to follow them. "You were staring," he excused following out. Fish, Tim and Tom jumped into the pool making a large splash. Ron followed in. Ginny and Bonnie and then Harry. Hermione dipped her feet into the pool at the front.

Harry pulled Bonnie over to him in the water. "At least you don't look unhealthy," she said as Harry twirled her around, her back against his chest. "I can't believe I weigh more then my own boyfriend. Is that creepy or is it just me?"

"Don't even think about it Bonnie," Fish said holding Tim's head under water. "I've had girlfriends who have weighed much more then me. I weigh one more pound less then Harry does now, but I'm also shorter."

"Fish you're drowning Tim," Harry pointed out.

"Oh, yeah." He let up and Tim gasped for breath.

He punched Fish in the shoulder and pulled him in a headlock under water.

"This is nice," Harry mumbled against Bonnie's neck and kissed her shoulder.

Ron walked through the water over to Hermione and rested his arms on her knees. "What's up Mionie? You never said you didn't like swimming before."

"I'm fine Ron. I just don't want to swim."

"Come on Hermione," Harry said. "Nobody is judging."

"Yeah, you can see Harry's spine and we've never made fun of that or his hair or called him four eyes," Fish said.

"That's because I'll hurt you," he reminded him with a cocky grin.

"Look, I just don't want to swim," Hermione lied.

Ron lifted himself up on his arms and leaned against Hermione pulling her into a heated kiss.

"Wow, that's the first time I've seen you kiss since you were snogging on my bed," Harry said. Ron fell back into the pool and laughed.

"You haven't. But the rest of us have been unfortunate enough to have to watch it," Ginny said sarcastically. "You were in the library reading about Merlin."

"Come on Mionie. You can't have fun sitting at the edge of the pool," Ron whined.

"Fine. I'll get in." She stood out of the pool and got into her bathing suit and slid into the pool as the boys all whistled. "Oh shut up," she said, rolling her eyes but smiling.

They all jumped around in the pool for a little while, pushing each other around and dunking their heads under water.

"Harry, cut that out," Bonnie said pushing Harry against the wall after he dunked her head under water. Harry laughed at her and pulled her against his chest and kissed her, feeling her slipping farther into the pool as her muscles went slack.

Someone behind them coughed. Harry pulled away and looked up to see Bonnie's father standing over them with Gabrielle standing at his knees. "Hello sir," he said shakily as he was now holding his practically half-naked daughter against his chest.

"Hi daddy," Bonnie said sweetly and unnerved.

"Oh don't mind me. I'm not supposed to be here," he said, his hands pulled behind his back. "But Ms. Gabrielle would like to ask you something."

"And what's that?" he asked turning to lean against the pool wall. Gabrielle looked up at Bonnie's father.

"Go ahead."

Gabrielle kneeled down on the ground and leaned in to whisper. Harry leaned in to hear. "Can I have your autograph?"

Harry looked confused. "You want my autograph?"

Gabrielle nodded excitedly.

"I'm a little wet at the moment." She frowned. "Hold on." He walked over to the stairs and crawled out of the pool and dried himself off a bit. "Do you have paper and quill?" he asked, kneeling down in front of her. She held it out to him. "Okay." He quickly signed the paper to Gabrielle and handed it back to her. "Here you go."

"Thank you Harry," she said wrapping her arms around his neck.

Harry stiffened. "You're welcome," he said and patted her on the back and kissed her cheek as she pulled away. Her smiled widened excitedly.

"Come on Gabrielle," Cameron said leading her away. She waved at Harry as she walked away.

The word "aww" at the sweet sentiment came in unison from the pool.

"Don't do that," Harry reprimanded. "I can do nice things," he said climbing into the pool.

"Kids really love you," Fish smiled.

"I know. What is wrong with kids today? You'd think I would scare them"

"Why would you scare them?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. Don't you think I'm scary?"

"Not really."

"What about the lip ring, which I'm not supposed to wear in the pool. Shit I forgot."

"Haha, Harry's lip is going to be scary now," Tim and Tom said together.

Harry glared at them and climbed out of the pool to remove his lip ring.

"Hey Bonnie, are you going to force him to have kids?" Ginny asked.

Fish, Tim and Tom looked uncomfortable.

Bonnie smiled. "No."

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

"I can't have children."

"Oh," Ginny and Hermione said together.

"Do you mind if I ask why?" Hermione asked carefully.

"Uh, well I'm sure you heard Fleur. Barren. So having children would be out of the question."

"I'm sorry," Hermione said quietly.

Bonnie just shrugged.

Harry came out of the pool house and stopped. "Why does everyone look so dismal."

"No reason," Bonnie said. "We're just all happier when you're here. Like the young girls who ask for your autograph."

"Ha ha," he said climbing into the pool. "She's probably going to give it to Fleur who is going to collect my fingerprint off the quill and frame me for something I didn't do."

"If you collected all that information why did you sign the autograph?" Ron asked.

"Because I'm not mean."

"You know," Bonnie said, wrapping her arms around his waist, "I was getting attached to that lip ring."

"I'll be putting it back in."

"Now you have a hole in your lip. Did you know it's visible?"

"Just ignore it."

"I can't Harry. It's scaring me. You were right, you are scary. Oh I'm shivering with fear. Ooh," she mocked, moving back and falling into the pool.

"Would everyone stop kidding around?"

"You know what we should do today?" Fish asked. "We should play strip poker."

"Why should we play that?" Ginny asked.

"Because I'm sitting in a pool with a bunch of rich people and I need some money."

"Ginny and I are not rich," Ron pointed out.

"Well they are."

"Why strip poker?" Ginny asked.

"Because it's hot outside. Look, we'll play the way we did during the summer when we were kids. Put on all the clothes we had in our closet, sit in the middle of the street and play poker till we were down to our swim trunks. Apparently boxers and swim trunks are completely different and less inappropriate."

"That sounds fun."

"Yeah and the trick is to add cloth made accessories. They count as clothes. Like hats, hair ties, stuff like that. Anyone in?"

"But other then the fact that it's hot, why strip poker? We could play regular poker in our bathing suits," Hermione asked.

"Because that way we don't lose money. Strip poker is funner, and cheaper."

"'Funner' is not a word Fish," Harry said.

"And Fish is not a name, yeah, yeah. Are we going to play or not?"

"Sure why not?" Everyone else agreed and they climbed out of the pool. They went inside to their rooms and put on as many layers of clothes as they could before heading downstairs to the parlor where a poker table was already set up.

"My mother plays poker. That's why it's already here," Bonnie said. They all sat down around the table.

Half way through a few games Harry was left in his pants without a belt, Fish was out, sitting in his trunks; Tim and Tom were missing a hat. Hermione and Ron had both stocked up on as much clothing as possible and Hermione still ended up in the top of her bathing suit and her pants while Ron had on a T-shirt and his trunks. Bonnie was fully dressed wearing her large black hat, a black skirt and red Dock Martins.

"You are all terrible at this game," she said to them as they laid down another hand.

"Yeah well, the rest of us didn't spend half our past summers playing poker with our mothers," Harry said, standing up to unzip his pants. He pulled them off and threw them in the pile and sat down not bothering to pick up more cards because he lost.

"I think we can guess right now who's going to win," Ron pointed out.

"Nuh uh, it will get down to me, Tim, and Tom sooner or later," Bonnie said, passing out another hand of cards.

"What are you all doing?" asked James walking into the room with Sirius, Remus, and Cameron.

"Playing poker," Harry said. "Bonnie's winning."

Bonnie smiled proudly at them.

"Yes, she does have that straight face," Cameron said.

"Why is everyone only half dressed?" James asked as they walked over.

"It's strip poker. But don't worry. We stop once we're down to our bathing suits. That's why me and Fish are out." James eyed Harry's back.

"Do you have a cross tattooed on your back?" he asked, pushing Harry forward in his chair to look at Harry's back.

"Yes. It's been there since I got my job at the tattoo parlor."

"Along with the lip ring. I like the tattoo better. I have a question, how do you know who wins?"

"Last person still dressed," Harry said obviously. "Which looks to be Bonnie, Tim, or Tom. But it will obviously be Bonnie because Tim and Tom lose together and win together."

"Ah, well, the men are going out. Just wanted to make sure you would all be okay on your own. The butler will be watching you."

"We'll be fine, won't we gentlemen?" Harry asked.

"Yes," the boys recited. Intent on paying attention to the game.

"The girls didn't agree," Cameron said.

"Oh well, they're all devious little buggers. You can't trust them. But don't worry, we'll keep them in place," Harry smiled.

"Mmm," James hummed, unconvinced. "Well, have fun then." They all left the room and the kids listened to them walking down the hall.

"Aww, that's so nice Harry," Bonnie said, looking at Harry. "You spoke to your father. See, it's not that hard."

"Oh, I think I'm going to pass out it was so hard," Harry said, stretching his head back.

"Yeah Bonnie, don't rush him. The poor boy grew up with the Dursleys. He can't have friendly conversation with adults."

"He can't hate adults and children," Bonnie pointed out.

"I never said I hated children. I just don't want to spend time with any of them. And I don't hate adults either; I just… don't want to talk to them."

\-\

That night Harry and Bonnie headed up to their rooms with everyone else who had no problem sleeping in their own rooms. But Bonnie knew it was some kind of separation issue with Harry. The fear of her getting hurt or disappearing must be forming circles in his head. He couldn't sleep by himself knowing that she was in the next room, open to danger without him when he could be there to save her. He had it since they were little kids. Bonnie had it sometimes to but it was more to do with the fact that she wanted to be close to him and less to do with fear, though there was that to. At school they had separate bedrooms but he had made so much trouble with the boy's dorms he ended up being moved to the girl's so he could stay with Bonnie. When they were still kids Fish told her that Harry did it to everyone, it was just increased anxiety over her. To keep her close. He liked to hold people when he was sleeping. Her especially. Fish told her it was the reason he let her into the group, he liked the sight of her and could catch the scent of her a mile away. She thought it was creepy at first, even though she liked him, but he was so cute and sweet no one really cared how weird he was. He was sweet and he was weird so he could take care of you.

He walked her up to her door behind her and she stopped. "Harry, you know you have to sleep in your own room right?"

He looked down, his eyes shifting around. "Can't we be disobedient and stay together?" he asked, sounding liked a kid afraid to be yelled at.

"No, you must go to your own room. Over the summer we can stay together again Kumquat," she assured, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Until then, remove the knives from your bed ceiling and go to sleep in your own bed. You going to be okay?" she smiled.

Harry gently caressed her cheek staring at her sadly. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I'll be okay. I would just _rather_ you be there. Fish was wrong you know. I did like the sight of you, and you did smell good. But I let you in because you were so damn colorful," he smiled. "You seemed so sweet and innocent. Something I was anything but at the time. Ask Fish, I was never the nice person I am now, not until I met you. And every time I'm close to you, every time I get to hold you while you sleep, I can see the innocence you still have, the sweetness, showing through. Something I had to fight for. A sweetness that was to make me a normal person. The anger and the only thing I was, was a warrior. And you were the beautiful innocence I desired. _That_ is why I let you join us."

Bonnie smiled. "I love it when you talk like St. Jimmy."

Harry smiled back at her and leaned in to capture her lips. "Well, I'll go to bed. Let's see if I live through the night. If I turn up bald in the morning you'll know I had a rough night." He kissed her again before they each headed into their separate rooms.

Harry untied the knives from his bed and carefully set them on the table beside it. There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Harry called, beginning to unknot another knife. His father opened the door and walked in.

"Hey, just wanted to say goodnight."

"Great. Goodnight," Harry said, smiling.

"What are the knives for?" James asked, ignoring Harry.

Harry sighed. "I had a strange way of thinking when I was little. I was only strangely artistic."

"And the knives hanging around the bed mean...?"

Harry sighed and tilted his head to observe his work while removing his hands from the untying. "It means… it has the meaning that everyone is fearful when they're asleep. I once read this article about people being most relaxed while they're sleeping. And while that may be true I find that people are often scared in their sleep. Either you're having a nightmare, or you're dreaming. Dreaming is usually past happy memories, things you wish for, or things you hope will happen. And while dreaming you're obviously only avoiding fear. So in you're sleep you have: fear itself, or empty fear. No one is ever free of fear. It's what keeps us living."

"Maybe you should be a philosopher."

"I enjoy philosophy," he said plainly. He then went back to untying his knives.

"Harry," James said carefully.

"Mhmm."

"I apologize, for making you uncomfortable. I'm not sure what I did, but I'm sorry for it."

Harry held the knife he had taken down and slowly set it on the table. He turned to his father who had his head lowered. "Dad you didn't do anything."

"Then why do you act strange around me all of a sudden? Over the summer after maybe a week you were fine and everything, but ever since I gave you detention in school you've had this huge grudge against me."

"I do not have a grudge against you."

"Then why is it we can't have a normal conversation?"

"I don't know. We've never really had the time I guess." He sat down on his bed.

"I guess we don't have that normal relationship as father and son do we?" James asked.

"No," he said, shaking his head.

"And we probably won't ever have it."

"No," he repeated.

"But that's okay. We don't need a normal relationship. Neither of us are normal. I'm supposed to be dead at the moment and you're going to be the savior of the wizarding world. It would probably be easier to create our own strange relationship between the two us. Don't you think?"

Harry looked up at him. "I guess."

"Good. So, the only thing I'm asking for is that you not act like I'm some weirdo you don't know. Maybe pretend you know a little bit about me."

"I tried. And then it backfired when I realized you weren't the person I believed you to be. Remus and Sirius always described you as this… man who would never lose his childhood. And I saw that, at home. With just you and mum, and Sirius and Remus. But then, when we went to school. You were like this angry dictator. It wasn't even that you gave me detention, I can deal with that. It was that you were so rude to students, acting like the professor that I heard you always hated. I thought it was just strange, that maybe I hadn't really met you over the summer and it was just because you were just back from dead. I didn't know what was going on. Maybe it was just me and my head was working weird and I was imagining the way people were acting."

"I'm sorry I acted as an angry dictator in class. It's just how you teach. Or how I teach. I didn't think I would make many people learn anything by having a lot of fun. And I had a lot to do thanks to your previous professors. I'm sorry if I made you think any differently about me then what you believed. I'm really not a mean person," he said walking over to his son. He kneeled in front of him and rested his hands on his knees. "In fact, _despite_ what Sirius _might_ have told you, I'm quite boring. Ask your mother. She finds me terribly dull. Haven't you ever noticed we don't spend time together?"

"No," Harry said fearfully. "You shouldn't give your children fears that their parents will break up dad. Especially when my mother is pregnant."

James smiled. "I'm sorry. Your mother and I are fine, don't worry. I was just kidding."

Harry nodded, still not finding it at all funny.

"I think it's the fact that we don't get each other. You do have a strange mind."

"I know."

"I was hoping we would get to know each other better before you turned seventeen so maybe we should try to be civil and act like we know each other and then we will get to know each other."

"What kind of logic is that?"

"It's logical logic."

"Fine. We can act civil and pretend we know each other. But you can't insult my snake. He only went to your room because he thought it was mine. He was confused and you scared him."

"I'm sorry."

"Also, I'll try to answer all your questions about my childhood. If you still want to know."

"Of course I want to know. You're my son Harry, me and your mother missed out on a lot. And my first question to you with my new power to ask what I want is… why are their knights and things all over your wall?"

"Well, contrary to what Bonnie's father probably told you, though I do wish to take over the world. My real dream was to be a knight. You know, not that stupid dream normal kids have of fighting dragons and saving damsels in distress, though I guess I have done all that already. But I wanted to be knighted. By the Queen you know? But that dream is over because the Queen doesn't knight wizards. Unless I decide to go live as a muggle and that's not going to happen."

"You could be knighted by the Queen."

"For what exactly?"

James thought about it. "Well I'm sure you'll think of something."

"Yeah. Well, we should both be getting to bed you know? Don't want to keep your precious son up all night do you?"

"Right," James agreed standing up. "I'll leave you to sleep." He ruffled Harry's hair and headed to the door. "Goodnight." He left and Harry stood to continue to untie his knives. When he was finished he changed and crawled into his bed thinking of ways to make sure Bonnie was still in the next room sleeping while he was to. But before he could figure it out, the thinking made him exhausted and he passed out in the Egyptian black cotton pillows.

\-\

"**Hey! St. Jimmy!" Fish yelled from down the street. He got up to a run to catch up with Harry as he walked down Privet Drive. **

"**Hey Fish."**

"**Hey. You didn't come by and say hello when you got back? Feeling impolite about seeing your friends? Are you getting embarrassed of us? Are you going to get rid of us? Learn anything new this year?" he asked quickly, his voice changing to match the tone of each question. **

"**Yeah, just a few things. And I'm not getting rid of you guys." He was quiet for a moment and Fish knew better then to talk, so he waited. "Sirius died. I killed him."**

"**Wait, what!" Fish asked, his eyes shocked as he stepped in front of Harry and grabbed his shoulders. "Jimmy, you killed your godfather?" he asked slowly. **

**Harry put his hands on Fish's shoulders. "I killed him." He walked away from Fish and out of his reach continuing to walk. **

**Fish stood staring at the spot Harry was once standing in. He then turned and ran to catch up again. "Jimmy, wait. What the bloody hell are you talking about mate? You don't kill people."**

**Harry looked at him over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow, stopping to talk to Fish, knowing he wouldn't give up. **

"**Okay so there were those few little things but those weren't your fault."**

"**According to everyone else neither was this. But I know better Fish. This time, it was, and no one is going to tell me different. I led Sirius there and if he hadn't come he wouldn't have died. If I had not been so busy refusing to bother Sirius about problems at school he wouldn't have gotten hurt."**

"**Jimmy, you've got to stop holding yourself responsible for things you can't change now. If the people at Hogwarts tell you this wasn't your fault it most likely wasn't. You and Bonnie always used to tell each other over and over the points showing why this wasn't your fault and then your felt all better again."**

"**Yeah well Bonnie's not here is she?" Harry asked angrily, turning away from him and starting to walk again. **

"**I wouldn't be so sure about that." **

**Harry stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to Fish. "What do you mean? Bonnie hasn't even sent a letter since we were eleven."**

"**No, but she doesn't have to now. She lives right down street." Fish smiled, at the look of Harry's eyes brightening. **

"**When did she get back?" Harry asked desperately.**

"**This morning. This is what happens when you don't greet your crew first thing," Fish reprimanded. **

"**I'll talk to you later Fish!" Harry yelled beginning to run down the street. **

"**Same house Jimmy. Oh and Jimmy!" he yelled stopping Harry to look at him. Fish smiled at him. "She's hot." **

**Harry gave him a look before continuing to Bonnie's house. **

**Fish was mumbling to himself. "Oh yeah," he smiled. "I'll go collect the Suburban Children to get started on wedding plans." He turned and headed in the opposite direction. **

**\-\**

**Harry skidded to a halt in front of the third house on Mongolia Crescent. He stared up at the house, it looked exactly like every other house on the street but somehow it was different. **

**He hadn't spoken to Bonnie since the days he didn't even know he was a wizard. Five years had passed. He didn't know what she looked like but she had probably seen him from the papers. He knew he should have just made a fool of himself and asked Fleur Decluer about her while the girl was at Hogwarts. But he didn't, and now they would both be in complete surprise at seeing each other. **

**The fear of her completely hating him was coming as he stood in front of her house. They had always been the best of friends but what if she hated him being famous and had forgotten all about him? What if she just forgot about him? That would be horrible. Showing up on your best friend's doorstep with a smile at the sight of her and her standing there with a confused face and asking those dreaded words in a plain tone. "Do I know you?" He had feared her coming back since his second year when he knew the time had passed where you couldn't forget your friends. **

**He quietly reminded himself that she couldn't forget. She was part of this strange group from her hometown, and no matter where you moved you were always a part of it until you died. Your name was signed in blood in the St. Jimmy book. **

**He brought up the St. Jimmy stick in his hand to give him more confidence at walking up the stairs of her house. He stood there silently for a moment wondering if someone was standing behind it watching him contemplate knocking. He took a deep breath and knocked quietly on the door, almost hoping for no one to be home. **

**The door opened and there stood the butler in his black suit, not seeming to have aged since Harry was ten. "St. Jimmy." He turned to Harry with a straight face, which turned to a devious smile. "We have returned from France. You will find Ms. Hell's Angel waiting for you on the table in the library."**

"**Thank you butler," Harry smiled. He walked in as Butler closed the door behind him. **

"**Would you like me to lead you to the library St. Jimmy?" he asked coming up behind him. **

"**Um, no thank you. I'll find it." He grabbed Butler's arm and pulled him back as the man went to walk away. He still stared straight ahead in the direction of his destination. "Butler tell me," he said nervously. "Is she… you know?"**

"**Missing you terribly sir. Can't wait to see you. Passed out on the floor with nerves knowing she would have to see you sir," Butler said as if this were an ordinary occurrence.**

"**Did she really?" he smiled, looking over at him excitedly, holding his arm close to speak softly. **

"**Absolutely sir," he said with a nod of his head. **

**Harry smiled and nodded letting go of the old man's arm. "Thank you. And um****―****" He stopped him as the man went to leave. "I'm very sorry for stealing your toupee."**

"**I've realized I look better without it." He smiled and left Harry to fend for himself. **

**With his new self-confidence built for seeing his best friend, he took his steps toward the library. **

**He stood at the door, leaning against the frame staring hazily at her as she sat on top of the table. Her blond curls still reflecting sunlight that wasn't there. The light of the windows hidden behind long curtains as soon as he entered the library. Her eyes quickly tracing the words in the book she obsessed over titled ****Gone with the Wind**** in every language known to man besides her own. Her pale fingers tracing the hem of her black skirt, not needing to hold open the book since the pages fell to each side with age and ware. He realized how well he still knew Bonnie. Just how pale her skin was and how much it hadn't changed over the years, how much she loved her natural curls. Everything about her was the same. Besides a few well placed curves added to her body shape that he didn't remember being there before. Her face was older and more mature, but her eyes still held the same innocence as her ten-year-old self. **

**He took a step forward into the library, leaning off the frame. The floor creaked under him causing Bonnie to look up at her visitor. He stood still as she looked him over slowly taking in the change in him. Her eyes traveled up to his and she smiled happily. "Jimmy!"**

**She closed her book and set it down quickly to jump off the table and run to him. **

**Harry leaned his cane against the wall and gathered her in his arms as she ran to him. He now realized he was also taller then her for once. She had always been slightly taller then him. He quickly took in the scent of her as soon as he had the chance. He hadn't had the scent of her, of the roses, in almost six years. How he had survived without it all those years? **

**She pulled away. "Jimmy, I missed you. I'm so sorry I didn't write. I was having a hard time keeping up with schoolwork and running away from Fleur. It was a bit mind-boggling the past five years. I really wish I hadn't left. I missed you all so much. I saw Fish this morning, I suspect he was the one who told you I was home?"**

"**Yeah," was all he could say. She was so beautiful in his eyes, looking at her as the girl he wanted but still couldn't have. It used to be age and now it was fear of other people's death. He wished she hadn't stayed away so long. He tucked one of her curls behind her ear and stared at her as she went quiet. His silence and staring was always a sure sign that you were supposed to stay quiet. He was thinking or watching you for something. Everyone knew that rule because his continual shushing when you interrupted would get on your nerves after a while. So she quieted her breath and thoughts as he watched her face quietly. In the letters Fish had sent her, she knew he only did this to his little group now. He wouldn't do it to any of his friends at school in fear of creeping them out and he wouldn't force them to follow his rules. He was a different person to them. Fish had admitted to her that it made him feel special. She knew it did the same to her. Being special in the eyes of St. Jimmy was a big thing for the group that had grown larger over the years she had been gone. **

**When he was finished looking her over, touching her face, her hair, her chin, he pulled her into another hug. Bonnie smiled and nuzzled into his shoulder taking in the scent of him. He was still the same, time keeping them the same even after the time passing. "I'm guessing you missed me a lot too huh?" she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt. **

"**So much." **

"**Are you doing okay?"**

"**Now that you're back home, with me. I'm perfectly fine." **

**He pulled her closer as the scent of her began to fade. He felt like she was disappearing in his arms. Her warmth disappeared with the scent of roses and his arms were suddenly empty. **

"**Bonnie?" he asked worriedly. He looked around the room and called for her. She just disappeared. He searched the whole library but she was gone. He walked out from between two bookcases and saw his enemy. Voldemort stood in the sunlit spot of the room, smoke emitting from his robes. He smiled.**

"**I think you're on fire," Harry pointed out. Voldemort looked down at his robes and stepped out of the sun. **

"**Potter. You'll never stop me. I'm going to have your wish. I'm going to take over the world. And when I do, I'm going to take your little girlfriend as my prize."**

"**You won't lay a finger on her," Harry said.**

"**I already have. And when I've won this little war for who gets to rule mankind, she's going to be my slave. My little play thing. I would keep my promise and share her with Draco, but… I don't want to. And you know what you'll be doing. You'll be kept safe in my torture chambers. My midnight torture will help me go to sleep better. And you'll stay down there till you die. I'll do you the favor of letting you die young, as a consolation for making this fun." **

"**You won't get anything but your worst fear out this war, **_**Riddle**_**."**

"**Don't you call me that you little savage. You're nothing but a child in warrior's skin. And you're a bad warrior at that."**

"**How do you figure that when I was the one to take **_**you**_** down last time?"**

"**You are a child, Potter. Nothing but a poor child who likes to play with the big bad villain to make himself look like a hero. The knight in shining armor. That's what you want isn't it? To be a knight. Well Harry, you can dream and pretend all you want, but I'll murder you before you ever get the chance to do anything productive."**

"**I'll kill you before you kill**_** anyone else**_**," Harry said determinedly.**

"**According to even yourself, I'll be able to kill you."**

"**But as long as you're dead, you can't harm anyone besides me," he said in a deadly tone. **

"**I'll kill you and I'll take the world in my hands. You're going to die Harry, and I'm not going to fall after you like you're dreaming."**

"**You will die," Harry said determined to get his point across. **

"**You can't have it both ways. One must kill the other, remember?"**

"**You don't know the whole prophecy!" Harry said confused. **

"**I know everything you do Harry. It's all here in your head," he said slowly. He pressed his finger to Harry's scar just like in his fourth year. Harry screamed as Voldemort repeated. "You can't have it both ways. You're going to die Harry. You're going to die."**

"**I'm not. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you."**


	21. Happy Christmas!

20

Happy Christmas!

Harry shot up in bed, breathing furiously trying to catch breath in his empty lungs. He slid off his bed onto the floor and put his face in his hands, still feeling Voldemort touching him, burning him. It felt like he was still right there.

He slowly pushed himself off his floor and went to his bathroom to hop into a cold shower, trying to rid himself of the feeling of Voldemort burning through his skin. He put his arm in front of him and his palm against the shower tile, leaning his head down to let the cold water run over his hair and down his back. His hair dripped onto his eyelashes that he blinked off only to have them replaced. The cold water got his breathing to regulate and calm down.

He stepped out of the shower and went into his room to dress after drying his hair. After one day of eating right he probably only gained two pounds but it seemed enough for his jeans. He pulled them on and slipped on a black leather belt. He put on a green T-shirt under a black button up shirt with the sleeves folded to his elbows. He put on a leather wristband and green converse.

He then left for breakfast where he was apparently late. Everyone was already gathered around the table eating. "Guess that means I slept in," Harry said, taking his seat beside Bonnie.

"Yeah, having a nice dream or is your bed nicer then you thought?" Bonnie asked.

"Caught in a nightmare actually. But the bed is comfortable once the knives are taken off," he said, thanking the maid as she set his breakfast down in front of him.

"Oh you poor thing," she said, stroking his bicep.

"I say poor Tim and Tom. Has anyone said happy birthday to you this morning?" Harry asked.

"No," they replied together.

"Well happy birthday." He sent two small matching boxes across the table.

"Thank you," they said together starting to unwrap their presents.

"Oh, I'm sorry boys," Bonnie said standing from her seat. "I can't believe I forgot." She kissed them both on the cheek. "Happy birthday." She then sat back down beside Harry. "We should go out today. We'll buy French butterbeer. The strawberry kind. That crap is so good."

"Don't use vulgar words at the table dear," her mother reprimanded calmly, speaking the first words the others had heard her say since the hospital wing.

"Sorry mother. Daddy, can we borrow one of the cars? I promise we'll be very nice to your car."

"And I promise I'll get you a very safe driver."

"But Daddy that's no fun. You know Fish is a very safe driver."

"So is Harry but he usually breaks the wires with the key to start the car."

Harry smiled and his mother laughed.

Bonnie sighed into her seat and looked over to Fish. "Are you wearing pink?" she asked, just noticing his shirt. The kids looked toward him.

"Yes I am. I think it looks nice with my hair," he said stroking one side.

"Is someone changing their sexual preference?" Harry asked, leaning into him.

"No. Haven't you heard? Real men wear pink."

"You're not a man Fish. You're sixteen."

"I like to believe you become a man when you first have sex."

"So you were a man by your thirteenth birthday?"

"At least Jenni wasn't a woman yet," he said quietly.

"Again," Cameron said, interrupting them, "don't talk about your sex lives at the table either."

They all looked at him then turned to Fish. Bonnie leaned in. "You had sex with Jenni?"

"Yeah. But she moved away. That's why she wasn't at Sober Day."

"Oh." She leaned back in her chair.

"And what are the rest of you doing today?" Harry asked.

"Mr. Potter, you have mail," said the butler walking into the room.

"Apparently reading mail," Harry said, looking at the large envelope.

The butler set it down in front of James. "No one knows I'm here," James pointed out. He looked at the label. "It's to Mr. _Harry_ James Potter. Your fan mail." He slid it across the table.

"I don't want it," Harry said, giving it to Fish.

"Harry, you can't avoid your fans," Bonnie said taking it back. "I'll look for all the addresses of your obsessed _girl_ fans, and track them down to kill them," she said happily. She opened the envelope and opened the first letter. A picture fell out. She screamed and hid it from Harry's eyes. She turned to James and spoke in a hushed shocked tone. "Harry is getting porn in his mail."

"What!" Harry asked reaching for the photo.

"No. Your obsessed fans are sending nasty pictures to a man who does not believe in sex. You can't see." She handed it to Fish who laughed at her but stuck it in his pocket. "Her letter isn't any better. You have one whacked up fan Harry."

"I blame Hanna for how she portrayed me. And I would still like to know where she got that picture. I do not read in skintight black t-shirts."

"Computer animation," Tim and Tom said.

"Maybe you should just leave your mail alone," Fish said.

"I want to read them." Harry grabbed a letter and opened one. "Oh, that's not good," he said setting a picture face down on the table. "Another nude picture. And it's the wrong sex. Yep, definitely don't want that one," he said, setting the photo on fire with his hand.

"I want to read it," Hermione said, snatching it from his fingers and reading it between herself and Ginny.

Harry glared at them and reached for another letter. "This one's for Bonnie…. I don't think we should open that one." He grabbed another. "And this one is for… my godfather," he said slowly. "Okay. Have fun with that Sirius."

Sirius took it from him and looked it over but decided not to open it. Harry took the letter back from Hermione and Ginny who were continuing to giggle.

"He really likes you Harry," Hermione giggled.

"Did he leave a number?" he asked.

Hermione's eyes widened. "Yes."

"I'll give it to Ma'am later. She likes gay guys."

Hermione calmed down.

"We should leave now. No more fun with the letters." Harry stood and pulled Bonnie with him as the others followed. "I just have to grab something out of my room. The car should come up in a minute. Bonnie come with me," Harry said quickly, pulling Bonnie along and leaving his friends at the door waiting for the car.

He pulled her up the stairs quickly toward their rooms. "Harry would you slow down," Bonnie said. When they were in their hallway Harry pushed her up against the wall and captured her lips hungrily. He pressed her hands up against the wall, lacing their fingers together as Bonnie moaned in surprise. He continued to kiss her heatedly for five minutes before he pulled away to breathe. "What was that for?" she breathed, feeling Harry still leaning against her.

"I missed you," he said. He kissed her lips lightly. "You know I won't let anything bad happen to you right? You know I won't let that happen again. I'll protect you. Riddle won't touch you. You know all that right?"

"Harry―"

"Bonnie I have to know that you know that. I need to know that you trust me to protect you," he said desperately.

Bonnie smiled. "I do trust you Harry. I―"

She was cut off by Harry's lips again. She stiffened but fell into mush as he kissed her. He dropped one of her hands to bring his own up to her face and stroke her cheek. He removed his lips and slid his hand out of hers and down her arm letting it slip from the wall. "I have to grab some money. Stay here okay?"

"I thought you already ordered your gifts," Bonnie asked.

"I'm still missing some. Plus, I thought what is a vacation without a concert. She Wants Revenge is in France for the weekend. I looked it up while we were in the hospital wing."

"Good plan. But you don't have to pay for everything. Especially with your own money. That's for when we travel, remember? Why don't you just go ask your father?"

"Because I have my own key to the vault. But I don't feel like going to the bank to transfer to Euro. It's just easier this way. Besides, I'm not asking my father for concert ticket money. I always pay my own way in concerts. I'll be back in a second."

He headed into his room and went over to his large vault that was tall and just a bit wide, like a dresser but taller. "19-20-0," he said quietly turning the dial on his vault. The door to the code pad snapped open. He pressed in five numbers. "10-9-13-13-27." Then the door opened to a cluthera of things. Money was spread around everywhere in great piles held together with string. Books were stacked in the corner, strange things no one would steel because they wouldn't know what they were, had been placed at the front and few large and small paintings sat at the back. Harry grabbed a wad of cash that were all in large Euro bills. He pulled out a few of them and then put it back in the vault and shut it tight. He twisted the dial and pressed 'locked' on the keypad. He stuck the money in his pocket and headed back into the hall.

"Let's go now." Bonnie smiled and placed her head on his shoulder as they walked down the hall and followed their friends into the car. "Oh look. Mr. Jacissk. I thought he died with Crud."

"No he just drives as slow as turtles now," Bonnie sighed. "Leave it to father to give us him as a driver. Not only is he slow but he's become that grumpy old man who tells children to get off his lawn even when they're not there."

Harry laughed and pulled her into the car with him as the butler closed the door.

\-\

That morning, as the kids were leaving for town, Jackeline went out into the back. She had her dark brown waves of hair thrown up in a ponytail this morning and wore light makeup, since it wasn't needed to care for animals. Her face was soft and flawless without help. She would put on more later for dinner. She wore a simple gray camisole, an oversized black knit sweater, and a flowing black corduroy skirt to her knees. She had black stockings underneath and boots for her time in the barn. "So, Jackeline," Sirius said, following her down the hall as she was going to leave the house to tend to the horses. She rolled her eyes at his third attempt at conversation this week. "You like animals?"

"I guess. I do have a lot of them."

"Yeah? I mean besides horses, what do you have?"

"Horses, chickens, cats, we only have two dogs left now. And I don't think either of them will have puppies."

"Why not?" Sirius asked.

"They're both female. And very old."

"Oh. So you're a real animal lover. Is that why you live in a castle with a barn and lots of room for animals?"

"Well, that. But my husband enjoyed selling and breeding the horses for race tracks."

"I'm sure you don't appreciate that. Wait, hus―"

"I didn't like that. It's why I divorced him. I got the house, the land, the money and the animals. He got nothing. Which is the way it should be. I did pay for all of it."

"Of course. So, you are single now, right?"

Jackeline stopped and turned to him. "Did Bonnie ask you to flirt with me?"

"No. I'm sorry. I'm doing a really bad job at this, aren't I? But I had to have lost something in prison and it just so happened to be my charm. I'm annoying you aren't I? God I must sound like I'm still in school," he rambled. When he looked up to her face she was smilingly amused at him. "What?"

"You're so cute."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Can I ask you one thing?"

"Sure, go ahead."

She turned and continued to walk and Sirius caught up beside her. "Well your reputation I've heard of. Though hasn't everyone after you got out of prison you were the hottest thing for the press. So what perplexes me is this. I'm quite plain. I wear this outfit practically everyday. Sometimes the skirt is a bit shorter or lower. I'm hard-core conservative and I go to church every Sunday. The only thing we know we have in common is pureblood so for the life of me, I can't see why you would have any type of interest in me at all. Especially when you could have so many more attractive women hanging at your innocent, come back to life, "I'm the Savior's godfather" feet."

Sirius smiled at her as she had stopped and turned to him in the middle of her rant. She waited for her answer. He just shrugged. "I don't know. I've dated the slutty, hang at my feet type. I wanted a change."

Jackeline took a great sigh and smiled at him observing whether he was serious. "You do know I'm only 24, right?"

"You are?" She smiled and nodded. "You're much younger then your sister then?"

She giggled. "Yeah. Younger."

"Well, my best friend is 22, his wife is 22 and we were all the same age when we went to school. So I guess things like age really can't get too much more uncomfortable anymore."

She smiled. "Okay. You want to help me feed the dogs?"

"I would love to."

They walked off to the barn to feed the animals, and Jackeline let Sirius slowly slip his strong sturdy hand into her own delicate one. In response, she smiled.

\-\

Meanwhile, in the car, they finally got to get out. Stepping out of the car before it came to its sluggish stop. "Merlin he's slow. I think we could have gotten here faster if we walked," Ron said.

"Come on. Now that we've spent half our day in the car we have to get some shopping done. Now since we're obviously, some of us, buying for each other we'll have to split up. We'll split up boys and girls first and that way we can buy for each other. Then we'll split up again so we can buy for the others. Work for everyone?"

"Sure," they all agreed.

"Good. We'll meet back here in two hours."

Ron and Harry grabbed a kiss from their girlfriends before they left with the others.

"So Harry. Have you bought Bonnie her present yet?"

"It's being special ordered for Christmas Eve," he said.

"Really? What is it?" he asked curiously. Fish, Tim and Tom listened in secretively.

"I'll tell you but you have to promise not to tell Bonnie."

"Why would I ruin the surprise?"

"Well, not that you would get the joke, but a dog. Well she did say she would gets cats, but dogs stay cute for so much longer. Cats stretch out. Plus I hate cats."

"You're getting Bonnie a puppy?" Fish asked.

"Yes. One that will always stay small and not shed on her."

"You're getting her a hairless rodent?" Fish asked.

"No. A small dog that doesn't shed."

"If a dog has hair it's going to shed. And if it's small it'll look liked a rodent. A hairless rodent."

"You guys are so rude. Besides it's too late now. The stupid dog is on its way here already. What are you getting for Hermione, Ron?"

"Not sure. Probably a book."

"That's not nice Ron. Hermione is a girl you know. Maybe you should get her some jewelry."

"Some of us do not have endless amounts of money like you Harry."

"Neither do we," Fish said. "But we get everyone quite expensive presents."

"How?"

"We have a five finger discount in every store across France and Britain," he smiled.

"You shoplift your Christmas gifts?"

"Either that or accept money from Harry. And that's only when we're not feeling like devious little devils. And I don't think I can remember a time when I didn't feel like a devious little devil."

"Don't you know that shoplifting is bad for the economy?" Ron said.

"Well think of it from our point of view. It's not our fault our parents are crack heads and alcoholics. They spend all the money they should be using to support their children on drugs and liquor. Now is it our fault? Should we really have to suffer and go through the embarrassment of not getting any presents for our friends and family because we're poor? No. So we take five fingers, lift from the counters and walk out. The people who run the expensive shops deserve it anyway for setting their prices so high."

"You always have the answers for all your bad deeds don't you?" Ron asked.

"Hijacking cars is only our way of saying this is what could happen to your car if you drove home drunk," he smiled.

Ron laughed and they headed to a jewelry store. Fish leaned into Ron. "See, Harry is our little cover. He looks rich because he is. And he can act rich. He knows diamonds and jewelry so the owner won't think anything but we're here with our rich friend waiting for him to finish his boring jewelry shopping." Ron nodded, amazed at how useful street smarts could be. He doubted these kids actually learned much past second grade. They wandered around the store looking over some things. Fish stayed next to him to point out things while Tim and Tom were a row behind them. Harry stood at the front desk looking at the case of jewelry.

"Can I help you sir?" the owner asked him suspiciously in French, seeing he was a child wearing dark clothes.

"Um, yes," Harry said, in a voice sounding eighteen instead of sixteen, somewhat older then he was. He lifted his hand and put it through his hair showing off an expensive looking gold band around his finger, making sure the man saw it. The man quickly straightened his posture. "I was wondering about this ring here. Real canary diamond?"

"Uh, yes sir. Seven carats, perfect canary shine. Sings just like her."

He pulled the ring out of the case and let Harry look at it. "Lovely choices you have in your shop sir. I've seen some good small shops and I must say yours is one of my preferred."

"I'm glad to hear that sir. May I ask your name sir?"

"James Evan. Looking for that special trinket for a girlfriend. She's just so darn picky you know? Parent's choice in wife, not mine. But parents know best, don't they? Now she's made specifics on what to get her for Christmas. Can you believe that? As if she didn't trust her own future husband. If she doesn't trust me enough to pick out her Christmas gift she could tell her father she doesn't want to marry me and we could get out this marriage. But no. You know what I'm talking about?"

"Ah, yes sir."

"Yes."

"I wouldn't believe that she doesn't like your taste. That is a fine ring you have there," the owner pointed out.

"Oh yes. Thank you. From a long lost love of mine. The woman I would have adored to be marrying. But a poor commoner she is apparently. My parents didn't like her and shipped her off, out of my life and left me with Hannah. The hornet."

"I once had a love to. I got to marry her though. For fifty years. Almost lost her once but it was love that saved her. But it wasn't enough to save her the second time I guess. She died but a month ago."

"Oh sir I'm so sorry," Harry said deeply sorry.

"That's alright sir. She was old, as am I. It was better for her. At least she didn't have to live through this horrible time. People are whispering everywhere of horrible things happening so suddenly. People are hearing and talking about something coming. Word of horrible news that no one has heard but knows is coming. I think it's all nonsense of course. People talk about anything as long as it amuses them and makes it seem like something interesting was happening in their life time."

"I think something interesting happens in everyone's life time. You got to meet the love of your life and keep her for fifty years. Some people don't get a happy ending but they can't say they died without a fascinating life."

"What a strongly opinionated young man you are."

"I know. My father yells at me for it a lot. He says it's not my strong point and I should stick to jewelry because my opinions will never make _political _headlines."

"Well you sure are having an interesting life."

"Yeah. You have no idea."

"James, are you finished yet? This is getting boring. I still have to pick up a new set of robes. I will not be seen wearing my worn ones from last year's Christmas party," Fish said, sounding utterly egotistical.

"Hold on Jacob. Um, it was lovely talking to you sir. You know; I would love to buy this ring from you. It is utterly stunning. But I don't think my girlfriend deserves such a beautiful ring." The man smiled. "But I will take that one silver band right there. The plain one."

"Are you sure sir? It's a beautiful ring but won't she get angry."

"Well, maybe she'll complain to her father and the curse will be broken," Harry smiled.

"Yes sir." He took the canary diamond and locked it up before taking out the other ring and wrapping it up. "That will be 40 ₤." Harry handed him over one bill and took his change and the ring and wished him happy holidays before leaving with his friends.

"My god Harry. You're a good liar," Ron complimented

"Just keep them talking. I like talking to people. Getting them to admit their past. It's a feature Bonnie admires in me. Not as much as my hair but one of her favorites."

"What are you doing with the ring?" Ron asked.

"Well, the box is for you," he said unwrapping the box and taking out the ring. He took the ring from Ron and put it in the box and wrapped it back up with a twitch of his fingers. He handed it back to Ron. "The ring will be just an addition to Bonnie's present. It was pretty cheap."

"40₤ is cheap?" Ron asked.

"Well, it wasn't as much as the rare canary diamond. I'll make it a promise ring or something. Girls like that."

\-\

"So what are you getting Harry?" Ginny asked.

"I'm not sure. What do girlfriends get their boyfriends for Christmas?" she asked as they wandered the streets looking for good shops.

"I don't know. Ginny's the only one who's had a boyfriend," Hermione said looking to her.

"Well, for Michael, I got him a whole bunch of candy. And that satisfied him for five minutes and then we ended up snogging for a long time."

"That's great Ginny. Way to feel good about yourself. Giving yourself and candy as a Christmas present," Hermione said.

"Well, it was Michael. I wasn't sure what to get him."

"What are you getting Fish?" Bonnie asked, hooking her elbow.

"I don't know. I don't know him that well. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. Don't you like him?"

"He's nice."

"I think he likes you. I've seen the way he looks at you. It's so cute. He's never looked at anyone like that. Though I wasn't there while he was being a slut but Harry said he doesn't really like most of them. I mean, he was dating Hanna. She's not a choice girl for a serious relationship. But you. Oh you would be so cute together."

"I don't think so, Bonnie."

"Why not?" Hermione asked, hooking her other elbow. "You've dated worse."

"I didn't say he was a bad guy. He's cute, and he's nice. But he doesn't like me that way. I'm sure of it. Now, what are you two getting your boyfriends?" she asked changing the subjects.

They both sighed.

"Lifetime supply of Tootsie Rolls?" Bonnie guessed.

"Maybe you should think more non food items. Hermione?"

"Um… a glass piece chess set?"

"Hmm, that could work. Good choice Hermione. Bonnie?"

"Uh, I don't know. This was easier when I wasn't dating him. There wasn't as much expectation. What do you get the guy who brought you back from death?"

"Harry has to make everything so complicated doesn't he?" Ginny asked, lying her head on Bonnie's shoulder.

"Well he does. What do you get him? He has almost everything. Fame, fortune, fans, the power to bring people back to life. What else does he need?"

"Did he ever tell you that he wanted something?" Hermione asked.

"He told me this morning he needed to know I trusted him to protect me. That's practically all. I mean, he doesn't want sex. Fish says he's still completely against it. Not that I would give that to him," she clarified. "He doesn't need expensive gifts, he can make his own fabulous art―" She stopped suddenly. "Art. Harry's an artsy person. If I can find one great book on Leonardo Da Vinci, he'll love me forever. To the used bookstore and then to the library of France."

"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked as they ran. "Buy it off the library?"

"If I have to."

"In two hours?" Hermione asked.

\-\

The boys sat at the table in a French version of the Three Broomsticks. A table outside the café, drinking French butterbeer. "Where are they?" Harry asked, twirling a ring box around in his hand. "They're a half-hour late. You don't think something happened do you?"

"Harry, you're such a worry wart. The chances of something happening to three witches, especially being Bonnie, Ginny, and Hermione, is quite low," Fish said.

"You're right. They're fine." He took another drink of his butterbeer.

"Girls, are you going to help me carry this?" they heard from down the street. Three girls were giggling as they tried to carry an obviously heavy bag down the street.

Harry stood up and walked over to them. "Doing alright here?"

"Harry, go away. You can't catch sight of your present. Shoo."

"I promise not to look. But do you want me to help you with that?" They all let go of the bag. It was hard to carry it all the way from the library. Harry forced himself not to look in the bag and carried it easily over to the table. Bonnie smiled and followed behind her strong boyfriend. Harry set it down by her seat at the table and sat down beside it. Bonnie sat down beside him and the girls took their seats. "Have fun shopping ladies?"

"Ginny and I found out how good Bonnie's negotiating skills are," Hermione said. "You better be thankful Harry. She worked very hard for your Christmas present."

"I'm sure I'll love it," he said, kissing her cheek. "Would the ladies like a drink? I'm paying."

"Love one."

Harry called over the waitress and ordered a round of strawberry butterbeer. They all chatted and laughed around the table, talking about nothing and what they would be doing for Christmas.

"Alright. Maybe we should split up now. We've all drunk quite a bit so we should leave. We'll go in twos that way there's no way we haven't already bought for the person we're with. I'll go with Bonnie, Ron and Hermione, Ginny you go with Fish and the chances of Tim and Tom not having presents already is not a chance at all. Right boys?"

They nodded.

"Good. Is everyone agreeing on the pairs?"

They all nodded and Fish and Ginny looked at each other funny.

"Good. Let's go." He set money on the table, took Bonnie's hand and grabbed her bags to pull her away. Ron and Hermione left after in a different direction. Tim and Tom hooked arms and sent off together. "We're meeting back here in an hour!" Harry yelled.

Ginny and Fish sat at the table looking away from each other. Fish leaned onto the table resting his chin on his folded arms and looked up at her. "So who are you left shopping for?"

"Um. No one. I'm finished. I got most of my gifts while we were at Hogsmeade."

"Oh." He sat up. "Well I have to look for my counselor. He said we're all supposed to send him something for Christmas or he's going to sell us to the U.S. of A. Would you like to help me look for something?"

"Sure," she smiled. They both stood up and walked from the table. "Why would your counselor tell you that you have to buy him a present? Aren't most of you…."

"Poor? Yeah, but if we can steal him something expensive he'll make more money that day. Schools are retarded aren't they?"

"I don't know. I've only ever gone to Hogwarts and… well I feel pretty safe there."

"Lucky you."

"Isn't your school supposed to be making you a better person?" Ginny asked. "Like, not stealing things and making a contribution to society?"

Fish snorted. "You sound like my step father when he's sober. But no. The school is there so that over the school year we have something non-destructive to do. Social services pick you up from your sloppy home while your mother's passing out on the couch, a stick of weed between her fingers as she drools over wheel of fortune. They take you away and have your parents sign you over to the government later that week when they're not drunk."

"Why are you telling me all this? You hardly know me."

"I want you to know that I'm not embarrassed about my home life. It's a mess and I really don't care. Because I'm not."

"I wasn't judging."

"I know that. But it's how I greet new people. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"It's okay." She smiled at him and hooked her arm with his and laced their fingers. "Let's go shoplift a piece of crap for your counselor and put a curse on it."

"What a wonderful idea. Let's get going."

\-\

Harry walked into the small shop pulling Bonnie behind him. "Harry why are we going in here?" Bonnie asked.

"The guy who sells cheap tickets works here," he whispered. "An employee of the shop a few doors down told me."

"Oh."

"Just go look around okay?" He kissed her cheek and let go of her hand.

"Alright, but don't let go of that bag." Harry pushed her away and headed up to the counter.

"Can I help you?" asked a young man, coming out from the back room.

"Yeah. I need tickets to the She Wants Revenge concert."

"What makes you think I have them?"

"A little birdie told me."

"Yeah? And your name?"

"St. Jimmy."

The boy stood straight again. "How many?"

"Eight."

"Eight? I don't have eight man."

"I know for a fact you hold at least ten."

"Alright. But I won't be able to give them to you for less then 15₤."

Harry set a bill on the counter and pushed it over to him. He took it and grabbed the tickets from under the counter. He counted them out and pushed them over to Harry. "Thank you sir."

"Yeah. If you ever need to buy eight tickets again, go find someone else." He then walked to the back of the room again.

Harry put the tickets in his pocket and went back over to Bonnie who was leaning against the back wall finding nothing interesting being sold in the shop. He wrapped his arm around the front of her waist and leaned in to kiss her neck. "So where to now?" he asked, his voice muffled in her neck.

"I don't have anyone else to shop for. You?"

"Nope." He kissed her neck again and moved up. He gently tugged at her ear and kissed behind her ear. His tongue slipped out to caress the skin and move down the side of her neck with sensual kisses.

"Harry, we can't snog in the middle of the store," Bonnie whimpered, as Harry gently nipped her skin.

"Why not?"

"Because it's unsanitary," she breathed.

"I'm sorry. Would you like to go find the car for an hour?" Harry asked, pulling his lips away from her neck and putting his forehead to hers.

"Mmm…. Okay." Harry moved her in front of him and led her out of the shop. They headed back to the car to see their driver fast asleep against the window. "You know, anyone could steel our car," Bonnie said, disgusted with the help.

Harry opened the door to the car and she climbed in first with him right after. Harry set the bag on the floor and didn't waste any time pulling Bonnie to him. He pressed his lips to hers passionately and slipped his hand under her knees to slip her onto his lap. He slowly laid her back on the leather seats kissing her passionately, showing her his love through his kiss.

"This is so improper of me," Bonnie said, as Harry occupied himself with her neck. "Letting you snog me in the back of my father's car."

"Yes, well, you knew I was a naughty little boy," Harry said to her and kissed her forehead and collected her lips and ran his hand through her hair.

"My mother would have a heart attack if she knew I let a boy snog me in the back seat of the car," she said, then giggled as Harry kissed a sensitive spot on her neck.

"Well we won't tell her then. Stop talking," he said, lowering her chin and taking her lips sensually.

Forcing herself to ignore the arousal he was causing in her mouth she gently pulled out of the kiss. "Harry we should stop."

"We just started," he smiled, leaning up to kiss her lips again.

"Harry I'm serious," she said trying to pull away. Harry's hormones were taking over and he continued to pressure her. "St. Jimmy cut it out!" Harry moved off of her quickly, angry with himself for letting his hormones take over. He moved to the other side of the car.

Bonnie sat up, taking her breath and patting her skirt between her legs watching Harry silently yell at himself. She crawled over to him on the seat and looked him over lovingly. "I'm sorry Harry," she said, folding down his collar to kiss his neck. "I know you just want to be close to me," she consoled, wrapping her arms over his shoulders and running her fingers into the collar of his shirt. "But maybe the backseat of my father's car is not the best place to be close," she consoled, her voice muffled by his neck.

"I know. But we don't have too many choices do we?" Harry said with his head still lowered.

Bonnie kissed the back of his neck. "Harry, are you okay? Ever since this morning you've been kissing me like a mad person every chance we have alone. And asking me if I know you'll take care of me. Are you scared?"

"Let's go get a butterbeer," Harry said reaching for the handle.

"No," Bonnie reprimanded, smacking his hand away. "Harry, you have to talk to me," she said, cuddling him. "Why do you think you need to protect me from… Riddle?"

"That's Voldemort. And, I had a nightmare where Voldemort told me he was going to kill me and… he was going to keep you for his prize."

"Yeah I know."

"What?" Harry asked, quickly moving her in front of him.

"Well after Malfoy kidnapped me I woke up and he started telling me how he was going to save me for his prize when he won the war because that's what you were doing. Keeping something pure for a consolation prize. And he would ruin something pure as a consolation prize. Like getting revenge."

"He told you that? And you didn't tell me?"

"Well I didn't want you to get scared. It's nothing Harry."

Harry didn't look very comforted.

"I'll be okay Harry. Are you worried about you?"

"No, I'm not worried about me," he groaned looking away.

"Well I am." She pulled him into a hug to cuddle him. "I love you Harry. I won't let you get hurt. And if you don't want _me_ to kill you, you'll stop telling me you still believe in your youthful death." She stroked his hair on the back of his neck as he slowly put his arms around her and rubbed her back feeling her shaking.

"Bonnie, it's okay," he soothed. "Everything will be alright."

Bonnie began crying into his shoulder. "I don't want you to die Harry."

"Shh, Bonnie it's okay," he soothed, rubbing circles on her back. "Everything's alright, Pet."

"But― you― said―"

"Forget what I said okay!" he said, to get her to stop crying. "I was wrong. I'm not going to die."

"You can't promise that," she whimpered.

"Yes I can. Bonnie look at me," he said, taking her shoulders and holding her up. She looked down, not wanting him to see her face stained with tears. He wiped her tears gently with his thumb and lifted her chin to look at him. "Bonnie, I'm not going to die. Okay? Everything will be all right Pet, I promise. I won't let Voldemort take you away from me and I won't let him take me away from you. Okay?"

Bonnie sniffed and nodded slowly. She quickly wrapped her arms around Harry again and continued to cry. Harry sighed and decided to just let her cry it out if she needed to. "It's okay. Come here," he said softly. He lifted her onto his lap and rubbed her arms. "It's all right Pet," he said, rocking her slowly. He kissed her forehead.

\-\

Half an hour later, when they were supposed to be meeting up with the others Bonnie had stopped crying but still clung to Harry, worried he might die if she let go.

"Bonnie, love, we have to get going. Our friends are going to wonder where we went. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes. I'll be alright," she mumbled though she didn't let go.

"Pet you have to let me go if we're going to get out of the car." Bonnie slowly slipped her arms away from his neck and looked down as she slipped off his lap.

"Do I look like crap?" she asked, looking up at him.

"No. Your eyes are just a little red," he said gently stroking her cheek.

"Can you tell I've been crying?" she asked. Her voice was still a bit raspy from crying.

"No."

She smiled nervously at him. "Sorry for breaking down on you like that. I guess we didn't really talk and it just sort of hit me. The fact that you could die and all. I know it should have hit me sooner, seeing as how you point out your early death all the time."

"I didn't know that it was really bothering anyone that much. I'll stop saying it, okay?" She could only nod.

"I didn't mean to start crying on you like that though. I'm sure I got your shirt wet."

"No, it's okay. What are boyfriends for?"

She smiled at him thankfully. He took her hand and they climbed out of the car. Bonnie took a quick look in the mirror before leaving with him. They walked quietly to the café with their fingers laced together and met up with their friends. They were already sitting down waiting for them but they hadn't ordered anything yet. They both sat down with their friends.

"Finally you're here," Fish complained. "It only took you forever."

"Sorry. We got caught up," Harry excused.

"Bonnie are you alright?" Ginny asked, noticing her eyes were a bit red.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Ginny turned to Harry accusingly. "What did you do?"

"Nothing. She's fine," Harry said, giving her a look telling her not to talk about it. Ginny got the hint and they turned to a different topic while ordering lunch. Nobody brought up Bonnie looking like she had been crying after that. When they were finished eating they chatted for a bit and then paid and left for the car. They all climbed in, turned on the radio and talked on their very slow journey back to the castle.

\-\

Christmas came before they knew it. All the presents were set under the tree from the night before. The tree was full of presents in shiny wrapping and the tree was perfectly decorated with fancy jewels and ornaments. The whole castle was decorated for the day of celebration. They all met downstairs in the dining room early in the morning. Too early for most of the guests. Apparently not early enough for Harry. He clambered down the stairs excitedly with Bonnie behind him looking like she might sit down and go back to sleep on the stairs. Harry came over to his dad and Sirius and put his arms over their shoulders smiling happily as they frowned at the time.

"Isn't it a lovely morning?" Harry asked.

"Why are you so chipper this morning?"

"Because, we're off to church. The best place to find God's only holy sinners."

"Harry's a big church person," Bonnie said tiredly, resting her head on the table and closing her eyes.

"What's with the glove?" James asked, lifting Harry's gloved left hand as it hung on his shoulder.

"Well at the start of the sermon they always make you shake hands with the people around you. I don't like when people touch me. Especially old clammy people who are only there to greet death through God." He shivered and pulled away from them to walk down the rest of the table. "Morning mum," he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek.

"Morning darling," she said quietly, still being tired herself. She smiled up at her husband who was eyeing Harry strangely.

"I have never gone to church," Sirius said. "My parents worshiped Satan."

"Did they now?" Jackeline asked, walking into the room. Sirius looked up at her nervously. "Well, we'll just have to make this a good experience for you." She took his hand and they walked out of the room with everyone else getting up and following behind.

"Church is great Sirius," Harry remarked as they made their way outside. "Though I don't really pay attention the way I'm supposed to. I go for the wine and to find holy sinners I'll remember to whack with a pole. Oh wait I can't do that anymore. I'm too old. Oh well," he said happily, walking outside and heading to the car where a much younger driver was. Jackeline wouldn't want to get to church late in exchange for safety. "Come on. Let's get a move on."

"Harry calm down," Bonnie said, sitting close to him and resting her tired head on his overexcited shoulder. He was dressed better then usual; wearing regular sized black trousers that didn't hug every body part and a black dress shirt that he had already folded the sleeves to his elbows. "It's just church. We won't miss anything."

The car began to take off and Harry lost his energy for the time being and rested his head on Bonnie's waiting to get to church. When they got their, an old classic French cathedral of course, they all climbed out of the car and walked up as the cars drove away to park. They were greeted at the front by the priest.

"Lovely group you have here Jackeline," he said shaking her hand with both of his.

"Thank you. I would like you to meet Mr. Sirius Black. He has never been to church before. I was hoping I could show him how nice it is with your lovely sermons father."

"Oh, thank you child." He turned to Sirius. "Mr. Black. Are you a Catholic?"

"Uh… well my parents were… well I don't have a religion I guess."

"Your parents were?" he asked.

"Satanist."

"Oh," he said worriedly.

"But I did not follow in their footsteps whatsoever."

"Well let's hope. Please join us."

Sirius breathed a sigh of relief as Jackeline led him in.

"And St. Jimmy," the priest smiled. "I haven't seen you since you were ten years old. How long has it been now?"

"Six years," Harry smiled politely. In retrospect the priest had always creeped Harry out but he never said anything.

"Well it's good to have you back."

"Good to be back sir," he smiled, shaking his hand.

"Bonnie," he greeted with a smile and she followed Harry inside. They walked to the side of the church while others were walking right in to the pews. Harry walked to the candles. He lit two and kneeled down to pray. Bonnie stood waiting for him to finish. He stood up, took her hand and went over to the pews beside his father. Fish sat down on the other side of Bonnie with Tim and Tom and Ron and Hermione and Ginny beside them. Harry pulled the knee rest down and kneeled to pray again like the others in front of him. Bonnie joined him this time but Fish, Tim and Tom stayed sitting, which made Ginny and Ron a little more comfortable since they weren't familiar with the process.

James watched his son, his hands together, fingers laced tightly while they sat on the back of the seat in front of him. His lips moved as he quietly prayed to God for whatever it was he wanted. James decided to join them and kneeled down and folded his hands. Harry looked to the side to see God had answered one of his prayers.

Lily watched her husband slightly shocked. Her parents had once invited James to church with them and though he went, he refused to kneel and pray to a God he didn't believe in. Harry didn't even ask him and James got down on his knees because he thought it would make Harry happy. She watched her son notice his father kneeling beside him and he smiled. She guessed James was right.

A few minutes later Harry and James sat back in their seat while Bonnie was still kneeled. She sat a few minutes later and rested her head on Harry's shoulder. The priest came up and stood at the front.

"Happy Christmas everyone. We are joined here today to celebrate the birth of Christ our savior. Today we have a few new faces. Jackeline has brought many with her to celebrate with us today. Spreading the Christmas cheer with friends, family, and all around us. And also, a face that is not so new. St. Jimmy has decided to join us again."

One couple in the pew tried to leave their seats.

Harry coughed, "sinners," loudly into his fist.

The couple sighed and went back to their seats.

The priest smiled. "We are all very pleased to have him back at church again." He then started his sermon and then they had to stand and sing. Harry didn't but Bonnie did along with Hermione and Ginny, and Tim and Tom decided to join in as well. Jackeline eyed Sirius who wasn't singing. She smiled and shook her head but continued to sing.

Soon they had to shake hands with the people around them. Harry grabbed Bonnie's hand with his ungloved one and kissed her cheek. He shook Fish's and turned to his father who pulled him into a hug. James turned to Sirius and whispered while shaking his hand. "What's the point of this?"

"I'm not sure."

Harry turned to the people in front of him. An old man stood in front of him and he used his gloved hand for everyone else before they sat down. Harry pulled a book out of his pocket and started writing down names.

"You still have that?" Bonnie whispered looking over his shoulder.

"Of course I do. Sinners are everywhere in France. What's that guy's name," he asked motioning to a man three rows in front of him.

"John Frank."

"Ooh, such a sinner."

"Why, what did he do?"

"I have no idea but he's going to do something." Bonnie sighed, rolling her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. Harry put the book back in his pocket and listened to the rest of the sermon. He had to wake Fish when they were supposed to stand and go to the front.

(Anyway!)

After another hour of worship they were all allowed to stand and leave. Harry followed Bonnie out of the pews and they headed outside the church.

"St. Jimmy. Could I speak with you a moment before you leave?" asked one of the men from the church.

Harry kissed Bonnie's cheek and told her to get in the car before walking over to the man. Bonnie watched them talking from the open door of the car, waiting for Harry. James watched his son making sure he got in. Harry nodded to the man and said something. It seemed to be a very tense conversation. Harry patted the man on the shoulder and said something before walking back to the car. Bonnie climbed in and Harry nodded to his father to tell him he was okay. They both got in.

"What was that about?" Bonnie asked as the car began to move.

"Nothing. Just wanted to greet me back," Harry lied. He kissed her cheek again to assure her while taking her hand. "Now we get to go back to the house and open lots of presents."

"Yeah, Harry, your present," Fish said. "Is it sitting under the tree?"

"No. Not yet."

"You didn't put it under the tree yet?" Bonnie asked shocked.

"It'll get there, pet. Don't worry."

\-\

After getting refreshed after church everyone gathered in the living room around the tree. A house elf brought in marshmallows, hot chocolate, and cookies.

"So by the time we finish opening all these presents it will be time for lunch. Maybe even dinner," Cameron said, grabbing one of the cookies.

Harry tried to grab a marshmallow but Bonnie smacked his hand away. "We don't need you hyper."

"You can't tell me what I can and can't eat. We've been through this."

"Marshmallows are pure sugar."

Harry turned to his dad. "Tell her I can eat them if I want to."

James turned to Lily to let her make the decision. Harry pouted at her and gave puppy dog eyes. "Go ahead," she sighed, giving in.

Harry smiled and stuck his tongue out at Bonnie and grabbed a marshmallow off the tray.

"Fine. But I don't want to deal with you when you're all nuts," she said crawling away.

"Oh you still love me when I'm nuts though don't you?" Harry said crawling across the floor and capturing her again.

She yelled and giggled as Harry grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap. She rolled her eyes and sighed giving in and sitting beside him. Harry didn't remove his arm and grabbed her a marshmallow to offer to her. She took it as Ron and Hermione sat down beside them.

"How do we sort presents?" James asked, looking at the large pile circling the tree. Lucky the living room is so big, he thought.

The doorbell suddenly rang. "I'll get it," Harry said, standing up quickly before anyone else could get it. Bonnie watched him run from the room before shrugging and grabbing a mug of hot chocolate.

"Well I guess we'll just have one person open one present. Or we can have people open all their presents. Or we can all open them at the same time and say thanks later."

"First one sounds good," Lily agreed and so did Mrs. Weasley. (Yes, they're still there.)

They heard the door close and Harry walked back into the room. He stepped over people and set a present on the floor in front of the tree. He then sat down next to Bonnie again and gathered her in his arms.

"We should start with the kids," Lily said.

'Giving each other presents or giving out presents or getting presents?" Cameron asked.

"Getting presents."

"Alright. Bonnie open first then we'll go to Ginny, Hermione etc."

"Ooh, grab the one I just set down. We leave it too long it might die," Harry said.

"It's alive?" she asked surprised. She walked over to her dad who passed her the box. She sat back down beside Harry as he wrapped an arm around her waist. "If it's a snake we are so not supposed to be going out," she said.

Harry laughed. "It's not a snake."

Bonnie looked the box over. "I can't even shake it. I might kill it." She untied the big red bow around the box and opened it. A small whining noise emitted from inside the box. Bonnie looked inside and then pulled away. "You didn't."

"Well I know you said you wanted a cat but… well everyone in the wizarding world has a cat."

Bonnie reached inside the box smiling insanely like she was going to burst and picked up a small fuzzy brown puppy no bigger then her forearm wearing a blue bow on top of its head. It quietly whimpered as she held it. All the girls said "aww" at it. "Harry, it's adorable. I love him."

"And he's not a muggle puppy either. When he gets a little older he'll teach himself how to change color to camouflage into his background."

"Oh I love him," she said, cuddling him close to her while cuddling herself into Harry's arms.

"And you're naming him…" her father questioned.

"Mooshie-mooshie," she smiled. "Because auntie wouldn't let me name any of the other dogs." She stuck her tongue out at her aunt.

"Bonnie, don't stick your tongue out at your aunt," her mother warned. Her aunt smiled in success. Bonnie looked down at her new puppy and talked babyish to him. "You should open your other presents or we definitely won't be eating lunch."

Bonnie set the puppy on her lap and it sat down in her skirt and opened the rest of her presents thanking everyone for them. Then it was Ginny who also thanked everyone for her gifts. Especially Fish's, whom she practically jumped at in excitement when he gave her a beautiful bracelet. It didn't look too expensive so she could be excited that he didn't steal it either. She, now embarrassed that she had wrapped her arms around him, let go of him smiling at him nervously. Then Hermione did the same to Ron when she opened her beautiful necklace. It was simple. A plain circle with a small diamond in the center.

"Well the young men did quite well," Fluer said. "I wonder if the young ladies will do as well."

"Judging us on presents Fluer?" Tim asked.

"Keeping score?" Tom asked.

Fluer glared at them.

"Alright. Tim and Tom can go next," Cameron said. They both collected their presents. From Fish, Harry, and Bonnie they got something in the new electronics department. Harry and Bonnie had it ordered from friends from prodigy school who were working to be scientists at Harvard at the moment. Fish had his own connections. Then Fish got his presents. Harry, Bonnie, Tim and Tom bought him some kind of weaponry. Harry got him a new gun. Empty so that Cameron didn't have to take it away. Ron was enthralled about his new chess set since his old one was decomposing. Then there was Harry. Cameron shoved a very heavy present across the floor but it didn't make it to Harry it was so heavy. Harry went over and lifted it like it was weightless and carried it over to his seat.

"Did you have to get such a heavy present?" he asked Bonnie.

"Trust me you'll like it," she smiled.

Harry peeled off the wrapping paper to find an old book beneath it. The pages were uneven as if they had been torn and put back in. Harry pulled the wrapping paper off the top and traced the title in Italian with his finger. "The Missing Documents and Paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci. Where did you get this?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Well I must say you are one hard person to shop for."

"What do you mean? I would have been happy with some Tootsie Rolls."

"Told you," she said to Ginny. "But no! You got me a puppy. But I went to the library of France and asked very nicely. And since they were actually going to auction it off next week they gave it to me for a very reasonable price."

"They were auctioning Da Vinci?" Harry asked shocked.

"I know! That's why I took it while I had the chance."

"You got me a book on Da Vinci from a vacuum sealed room in the library of France. That is a miracle," he said kissing her cheek.

"Well I don't know whether to be angry at the library or happy. Selling Da Vinci?"

"That's horrible." He looked down at the book. "You know if we continue buying like this we're going to lose a lot of money. We should agree not to spend anything more then… 1oo euros on each other for holidays."

"That's a good thought."

"Agreed?" he asked, holding out his hand.

"Agreed," she said, giving his hand one shake.

"Good because I want a big bag of Tootsie Rolls next year," he said seriously, picking up another present.

"Why don't you just beg for Tootsie Rolls on Halloween?"

"We're getting too old for that. No one's going to give a seventeen year old bunches of Tootsie Rolls."

"What about Easter?"

"Easter is a religious holiday and you know that," Harry said angrily, pointing at her. "There is no candy on Easter, it's sacrilegious."

"Yes, yes, no candy on Easter. I remember because it made for such depressing holidays."

"Well if more people would appreciate the reason we actually celebrate these holidays rather then the fact that they might get candy..."

"You banned candy on Easter Harry?" James and Sirius asked, sounding shocked.

"She's just angry because her father agreed. Besides, there are plenty of other holidays. And we're all lucky I didn't ban presents from Christmas. They're sacrilegious too. It's Jesus' birthday not ours. Plus, this day isn't even his birthday."

He opened the rest of his presents and thanked everyone for them. His parents were surprised when they even got a hug from him. He had been really nice to them all week. Lily couldn't stop smiling. Then the adults opened all their presents. Harry had bought both his parents a cell phone telling them no one should wander without one. "They work inside Hogwarts too."

When everyone had gone through their presents the house elves were cleaning the floor of wrapping paper. Hermione was so busy loving her present and Ron for buying it, that she didn't bother to complain about the house elves working on Christmas.

Prose was sitting on Harry's lap as he and Bonnie occupied one of the couches. Prose was wearing a red bow around his neck to celebrate the holiday, though Harry knew he didn't enjoy it. Mooshie-mooshie sat on Bonnie's lap, growling at Harry's snake and trying to leap at it. Bonnie caught him in mid leap and set him back on her lap. "I love him so much Harry. I can't believe you actually bought me a puppy. He's so cute," she said petting him. She leaned over and kissed Harry sweetly.

"Master," Prose said, annoyed by his lack of caring. Harry pulled away from Bonnie and looked down at his snake. "Master, I don't like this bow. I am a snake, not the cute little puppy sitting in your girlfriend's lap. I don't have the exceeding jaw line to make me smile."

"You're a grumpy little snake," Harry said, pulling off the bow.

"It's our nature to be grumpy master. Not coddle you," he said disgusted as he watched the small dog lick Bonnie's face making her giggle.

Harry shook his head and stroked the top of Prose head with his thumb and watched Bonnie giggle.

Harry collected hot chocolate off the tray as it passed by and took a sip. "Cold." He lit his fingers on fire and pressed it to the glass heating it up.

"Harry," Cameron said, walking back into the room. "Now that we're all in the Christmas spirit, why don't you play us all something on the piano while we're waiting for dinner to finish?"

"Do I have to?" he asked.

"It would be nice," he smiled.

"Yes Harry, it would be nice," Bonnie agreed. "Your parents still haven't heard you play."

"They don't want to," Harry said.

"Yes we do," Lily and James said.

Harry sighed. "Fine." He stood, setting Prose on the couch, and headed over to the black, grand piano beside the tree. "Anyone have a request? Maybe a Christmas song. Not that it will be recognized."

"Ooh, play Mary Had a Little Lamb," Bonnie offered.

"Any other requests?"

"Why don't you just play Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Gabrielle will enjoy it," Cameron suggested.

"Okay." He turned around and Gabrielle sat down behind the bench watching him play. "Bonnie why don't you sing?" Harry asked, patting the top of the piano for her to sit.

"Are you kidding? I haven't sung since you were ten. I'm probably out of touch."

"You're all making me play the piano when I haven't played in six years either. I'm sure you can sing." He again patted the piano.

"Fine," she said, walking over to the piano and sitting on top of it. "You owe me now."

"Fine I owe you." He started playing and Bonnie began to sing in a mesmerizing voice. Everyone watched with a smile on their face thinking how perfectly the two fit together. Everyone else soon began to join in.

Harry was trying to be on tempo but so many years of being forced to play as fast as he could made playing it slow hard. Bonnie sang and Ginny and Hermione joined in and Lily as well. When the song was over Harry turned around. "Well that was beautiful. Should we all go back to whatever we were doing before I started playing crappy music?"

"Play something really hard," Sirius said. "That's what you do isn't it? You said they fed you sugar so you would play Mozart really fast."

"Yes they did."

"So play that."

"No," Bonnie said, "it's funner when you make something up off the top of you head."

"It takes a minute." Everyone stayed silent as Harry rolled his eyes and thought for a few seconds, resting his fingers on the piano. He then started playing something no one had ever played or heard before. A beautiful sound came from the piano for another five minutes before they were called away for dinner. Harry stood up as they all began to leave the room. His mother pulled him into a hug and kissed his head. "That was beautiful darling," she smiled before heading into the dining room. His father pulled him into a hug for reasons Harry didn't get and left silently for the dining room. Bonnie came over to him and took his arm.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it? I'm sure you enjoyed showing off to your parents didn't you?" she smiled.

"Oh yes, I'm sure you could just feel my radiating enjoyment." Bonnie leaned up to kiss his lips.

"Come on. Let's go eat and stuff ourselves full of delicious food."

\-\

That night Harry crawled into his own bed alone, as did everyone else. He began falling asleep only to be joined an hour later by someone crawling into his bed. He was fast asleep when Bonnie crawled into bed beside him. She missed the feel of having him hold her while she was asleep and the feel of his body heat surrounding her while she slept. She crawled up to his back and curled up against him under the covers to see if she could gather his warmth without waking him up. Slowly she fell to sleep with Mooshie-mooshie sleeping at her feet.

\-\

Harry woke the next morning about to climb out of bed when he felt someone leaning up against his back. He turned over to find Bonnie sleeping happily and calmly in his bed. Before climbing out of bed he turned over to face her. He kissed her forehead and tucked her curls behind her ear and she surprisingly didn't wake up. He stroked her bare shoulder and down her small pale arms. She was wearing a small nightgown and Harry could run his fingers over her thigh, which was as silky smooth as her arms. He quickly pulled his hand away from her feeling sinful thoughts creep into his mind and he felt himself enjoying her too much. He quickly climbed out of bed and kissed her forehead before quickly going to the bathroom to run a freezing shower.

When he came back from the bathroom she was awake, sitting up in his bed still waking up. She looked over at him. "Good morning. Sorry, I crawled in with you this morning thinking you wouldn't mind. But I didn't want to wake you up."

"That's okay." He went over to her and gently kissed her lips but pulled away faster than usual, afraid of his sinful thoughts coming back with her sitting on his bed in her tiny nightgown. She was very tempting but he forced himself to look away.

Bonnie knew what he was doing and decided to give him a break. She told him she would meet up with him in the hall and left to go change.

\-\

The next night, Bonnie didn't have the chance to fall asleep in Harry's bed; as soon as all the adults went to bed the kids came back out of their rooms. They snuck outside their rooms and followed Harry down the hall to sneak out of the house for the concert. Harry hijacked one of Cameron's least used cars and drove to the building. It was rundown and creepy looking like a dark club, which it was. Harry and Fish had to drag Ron and Hermione inside.

"Come on you goodie goodies. It only looks this way. It's not so bad once you're on the inside," Fish persuaded.

"Harry, I do not fit the profile for this club. I'll get the shit beat out of me."

"No, listen you just said shit. That's a good sign. You swear a lot. I hear Ron. You're a bad boy at heart I know it. Why do you think Hermione's dating you?"

"Because I'm not a bad boy at heart?"

"Look, Fish is already changing your clothes. See. You look awesome Ron. You're not going to get beaten to a pulp. And if someone threatens you for some odd reason, you have St. Jimmy and his gang who are now very well known around the world thanks to Elle Girl magazine."

Ron looked at his clothes to find himself wearing black jeans and wife beater and a black button up T-shirt over it and black hightops. Hermione was wearing something that looked more Bonnie's style but Ron had to admit his girlfriend looked totally hot. He gave in and let Harry lead him into the club.

Harry put his arm over Ron's shoulder. "Come on Ronnikens. We'll get you a beer and you'll feel loads better." Ron sighed and followed him up to the front. They shoved through the line of the crowd. "Get out of my way, thank you. Please move. Hello ladies! Move. Don't touch me. Thank you," Harry said to the people that he passed making his way to the front with his friends.

"Get to the back of the line shorty," said the guard at the line.

"St. Jimmy and crew," Harry said, showing his tickets.

The man lifted the velvet rope. "Welcome to the Grudge St. Jimmy sir," he said letting them pass. The people in line groaned. "Shut up. Give Jimmy some respect."

The group made their way into the club. People were dancing around on the bottom floor as the DJ played blasting music from the stereos hanging from the ceilings as the band was setting up. Cages hung from the ceiling around the club dance floor with half-naked women dancing in them. Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder. "I can now fully appreciate the beauty of this club," he said, watching the women dancing. Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. "If you decide to drink, here are your fake ids."

"You're not giving one to Ginny are you?" Ron asked.

"No. They serve non-alcoholic drinks." Bonnie grabbed his arm and pulled him into the crowd. "Have fun." Bonnie and Harry made it to the center of the crowd to dance.

Fish turned to Ginny. "Wanna dance?"

She smiled. "Sure." He took her hand and pulled her into the crowd.

Ron turned to Hermione, who he still couldn't believe looked as hot as she did. Bonnie, Hermione and Ginny had all dressed together, borrowing Bonnie's dress-up clothes. Hermione had her hair half up and half down, wavy and smooth. Bonnie had put a little eyeliner and lip gloss on her and put her in a deep blue corset shaped top and a skin tight black skirt. She'd felt a little uncomfortable wearing so little clothing but after seeing Ginny in the short, short, shimmery skirt and no tights and a tight, low cut tank that was open in the back except one strap across the back that held it on; and then Bonnie's outfit, for her religious boyfriend, a short, high waisted red skirt, light black thigh-highs, ankle boots and a black tanktop, she felt like she was dressed less like a slut. "Wanna dance?" Ron asked, after looking her up and down.

"I'd love to." She pulled Ron out onto the dance floor.

Tim and Tom turned to each other. "Search?"

"Search." They both headed to the bar to search.

\-\

After an hour the band came on stage and everyone began screaming as the band started to play everyone's favorite song. Tear You Apart. Harry and Bonnie danced and continued to after the song was over. Harry was trying to release as much energy as possible and get control over his hormones again by working it off on the dance floor. When Bonnie felt she couldn't breathe anymore she forced Harry off the dance floor with her and they headed to the bar where everyone else was waiting.

"Hey. Having a little too much fun," Fish said. "I think Bonnie's lungs deflated out there," he said as Bonnie ordered a glass of water and downed in half a second. "You really shouldn't drink that fast Angel. You can drown yourself."

Harry smiled and held up two fingers to the bartender for two beers. The bartender set them down. "Bonnie, you want?" Bonnie took the beer and they said cheers before downing it. "Are we gonna have to drag you home now?"

"No. I'll down it."

"Wanna get back on the dance floor?" he asked.

"No. I need to rest for a second Harry. We've been dancing for hours."

"Is someone trying to drown out their hormone problems?" Fish asked. Harry kicked him from under the bar. "I was just asking."

"Ask quieter. St. Jimmy isn't supposed to have controlling hormones," he said quietly.

"I'm sure we could rage your hormones," said a seductive voice from behind them. Harry and Fish turned around to see two women standing behind them in quite skimpy outfits, skirts that hardly covered anything and something that might just be their bras.

"Hey," Harry said.

"Hi," the one blond said, leaning forward between his open legs. "You wanna dance?" she asked seductively.

"He's taken," Bonnie said standing from her stool at the bar to pull the girl off her boyfriend.

"Who the hell are you? I was talking here."

"His girlfriend. Why don't you bitches go work another corner!" she said defensively. They both looked at her strangely and finally looked away. Harry smiled at his girlfriend and was about to speak but she interrupted. "What was that?"

"What? She came on to me."

"And you just said hey! When sluts come up to you like that your first words should be, "I. Have. A girlfriend."

"Bonnie."

"You stay. I'm going to dance. Come on girls," Bonnie said pulling Ginny along with her.

"What was that about? I wasn't hitting on anyone!"

"Get a girlfriend and all of a sudden they're more in tune with who's hitting on you," Ron explained, taking the bar stool Bonnie had deserted. "While you were in the library with Merlin Hermione started her new hatred for Lavender claiming she was hitting on me. It's creepy. You know how Hermione is when she's pissed."

"But Bonnie's never pissed at me. I didn't even do anything to her," he said sadly. "Watch my beer Fish. I can't leave her on the floor alone. Who knows what kind of perves are hip-hop dancing with our girlfriends while listening to She Wants Revenge?" He stood and headed onto the dance floor to find his girlfriend. Ron and Fish quickly followed after thinking about it.

Harry found his girlfriend and the girls in the center of the crowd being crowded by three guys who were not in tune to the beat of the music and only trying to grope his girlfriend.

"Hey dude, would you like to step up to the beat and get off my girlfriend?" Harry asked, stepping between the boy and Bonnie. The guy was obviously seventeen or eighteen years old.

"Mate, get your own. I'm busy," he said shoving Harry out of the way.

Harry laughed stepping between them again. "I don't think you get it. She already is mine. _You_ should get your own."

"Look man," he said annoyed and obviously American from his accent. "She didn't seem to mind, so maybe your girl is looking for some new action. Now, why don't you get out of my way."

"She's not looking for any action from you, _man._" The guy lifted his hand back and came at Harry to punch him. Bonnie and Hermione screamed. Harry grabbed the guy's fist, twisted it back and pulled back his fist and slammed it into his face.

"Harry!" Bonnie yelled. She grabbed his shoulders to keep him from punching the guy again.

"Dude, what is your problem?" the guy said, holding his nose with his free hand. "Let go of my wrist. I think you broke it!"

Fish came over and pried Harry's fingers off the guy's arm. "Sorry, he's not good with people hitting on his girlfriend," Fish said trying to pull Harry away.

"Well he should get used to it. She's totally hot!"

Harry came back to punch him again but Fish grabbed his arms and pulled him back through the crowd making sure the girls followed. Fish sat Harry down in his seat at the bar. "Now calm down. Did you have too much beer?"

"I'm not using that bathroom Fish. I'd rather keep it down," Harry said.

"Harry, are you drunk? What's with you?" Bonnie asked.

"Talk about letting someone hit on you," Harry said.

"What are you talking about? Harry we were in the middle of the crowd, people are bound to get close."

"Yeah, that's why he was trying to hump you," Harry said.

"He was not! Jimmy, you're over reacting."

"So were you. I didn't say one word to those girls before you sent them away yourself. Then you yell at me."

"Um, we're all going back to the floor," Fish said, shoving the other three away from Harry and Bonnie who had never fought besides their little spat in French when they 'broke up.'

Bonnie turned back to Harry who had turned to the bar ordering another beer. She sat down beside him. "Harry, I'm sorry I over-reacted when that girl was hitting on you. I guess I'm just so happy we're together that I don't want anything to get between us. I was worried."

"You don't have to be. Nothing will get between us, I promise." He turned to her. "I love you more then anyone else. You know that. At least I hope you know that." She nodded as he caressed her cheek. "And I'm sorry I'm so over-protective that I have to break every guys wrist who gives you the wrong look. But you have to admit you were a little naïve."

"I admit I was a little naïve," she mimicked, rolling her eyes.

Harry smiled at her. "We are not a bar couple. We're more of a couple who goes to bars with friends."

"We can be a bar couple. But when one of us leaves the floor the other does to. And we should sit next to each other so people know we're dating. And… yeah."

"We have to go with the rules at the bar?" Harry asked. Bonnie nodded. "Alright," he put a foot up on one of the steps on her stool, "I agree." He leaned forward and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Though Bonnie enjoyed it she pulled away. "What's wrong?"

"You're drunk."

"Am not."

"That alcohol is making its way to your system now that you haven't disposed of it."

"I'm not using that bathroom, it looks disgusting," Harry excused. "And I'm not drunk."

"What do you mean it's disgusting, you're just going to throw up in it. And you know alcohol acts like sugar―"

"That was a theory. We've never tested it."

"Cause no one wants to see what St. Jimmy is like drunk. Maybe you shouldn't have that second beer," she warned as he lifted the glass.

"Bonnie, I'm perfectly fine. Don't worry." He drank down his beer and set down the glass. He leaned in to kiss her again but she leaned away.

"I don't want to snog you when you taste like beer."

"When we first kissed you said I tasted like wine. What's the difference?"

"Wine has a sensual taste, unlike beer. Which is disgusting."

"Fine. Dance until I supposedly get drunk?" he asked, stepping off his stool with his hand out for her. She took his hand and followed him to their friends onto the floor.

\-\

An hour later…

"St. Jimmy, come on," Fish said, practically dragging Harry out of the club.

"Fishy, Fishy, Fishy," Harry giggled, moving his finger at Fish. "That's funny."

"This is why you throw up. Not digest the stupid liquid like any normal person," Fish reprimanded.

"Bathrooms were filled with―" hiccup― "spawn, Fish. I couldn't go in there. They'd kill me. Evil little Fishes," he said in an evil voice and then giggled at his own joke. He hiccuped again. It took him a second before he started to giggle again. Fish shoved him into the back seat of the car and everyone got in beside him but Fish pulled Hermione aside.

"Do you know how to drive?"

"Yes."

"Good, you're driving. I had three beers; if I drive I'll get in trouble."

"With who?" she asked incredulously.

"St. Jimmy."

"Jimmy is drunk. I don't think he'll remember you having three beers and driving," Hermione said.

Fish looked at her pleadingly as if he really didn't want to disappoint Harry even though Harry was sitting in the backseat talking about Fishies and giggling. Hermione had to wonder why Fish would want to impress a guy, who was obviously his friend, while the guy was sitting in the backseat drunk. She wondered why they all looked up to Harry like he was their leader. Though Harry did get into some weird stuff at school and saved it a few times, she never thought people would look at him like that. Like they wanted nothing more then to make him proud of them.

"Please," Fish asked.

"Sure, fine. But I must tell you. I didn't get my license. I did read the book very thoroughly though and went through some training."

"You think I have my license. I never even went through driver's training. Never even touched the book. I learned from first hand experience." Hermione shook her head and got in the car only to realize she didn't have keys.

"How do I―"

"Just take those two wires and put them together to make a spark until the car starts," Fish said. Hermione got it to start and drove as carefully as she could without going too slow.

Harry was sitting beside Bonnie in the back of the car with his head rested on her shoulder. He picked up her hand and held it gently in his own and gently pet her hand with his other. "You're so pretty, Pet. I love you."

"I know Harry," she said, patting his hand.

"Did I ever tell you what Fish's real name is?" Harry giggled. "It's funny."

"Jimmy, you say it aloud and I'll… well I'll think of something."

Harry frowned.

"Wait, I thought it was John," Bonnie said, remembering the book.

"It is. Don't egg him on."

Bonnie smiled at him suspiciously but got distracted when Harry's hand dropped to her knee. She was going to smack his hand away thinking he'd finally gone 'St. Jimmy off the deep end'. But then she realized that he had fallen asleep on her shoulder as they drove.

When they showed up at the castle Bonnie woke Harry up only to find him not exactly asleep. Just bored with sitting in the car. Once it had stopped he jumped out and started moving up and down on the balls of his feet. "Come on. Let's go do something fun. Let's make scary masks and go around the neighborhood scaring all the neighbors," he said excitedly.

"Maybe we should get some coffee and then get you to bed, Jimmy," Bonnie said, leading him into the house.

"Let's time how long it takes each of us to run around the house. I'll go first." Fish caught him and continued to lead him back to the castle. "Fine. Let's set all the horses free and set the barn on fire. Let's go dance on the lawn and make mud angels. Ooh that sounds fun."

Everyone stopped dead at the door as they entered. Standing in the hall was all their parents (besides Hermione's). Waiting for them to get back. "Is Harry drunk?" James asked.

"Hey dad," Harry said drunkenly. He hiccuped again. "I didn't throw it up first. But the bathroom was nasty," he said, whispering the last word like a swear. "You don't look very happy. What's up your butt?" He giggled and turned to Fish. "I love that. It rhymes."

"You'll be punished later Bonnie. You can go upstairs," Cameron said.

"But―"

"Go."

Bonnie patted Harry's hand and walked away.

"Ron, Hermione, you can go to," Mrs. Weasley said. They both nodded and Mrs. Weasley led the three of them upstairs.

"You three boys can go to bed to," Bonnie's mother said.

"If I let Harry go, he'll go running around the house. Beer reacts like sugar. And like he said, he didn't throw it up."

James walked over and grabbed Harry's arm and motioned for the boys to head to bed. Fish looked hesitant but knew he would have to. Harry had good parents now. He wasn't allowed to defend him. He walked away and headed to his room. Cameron and his wife left to let Harry's parents deal with him.

"It's no use dealing with a drunk person. Let's go get some coffee," James said to Lily, leading Harry to the dining room. The maid brought Harry a cup of coffee but he didn't seem willing to drink it.

"I'm not thirsty thanks. I had enough at the bar. I thought I would get rid of all my energy dancing but apparently it didn't work. I―"

"Harry, you're drunk. Drink your coffee and then we'll give you your punishment."

"What punishment?" Harry asked, looking scared.

"We'll tell you when you drink your coffee." Harry grabbed the mug and gulped down the coffee and set it on the table and swallowed. "What are you going to do?" he asked, sounding like a small child, though his voice sounded less drunk.

"Well, I don't know how I would ground you. You're on vacation and everywhere you turn you have friends or something to do."

"Could you please? I promise I won't do anything but sit alone in my room and think about my sins. I promise."

"Are you excited about being punished?" James asked, amazed.

"Well this is the first time I'll be punished by you. And the first time my punishment won't involve a beating…. Right?"

"Of course," James said, scared that Harry would even think that.

"Good. So can I be grounded? I've never been grounded before. I've heard people complain about it before though."

James looked to his wife wondering if it was still punishment if your son begged for it. Lily shrugged. "He said he would think about his sins."

"His sins," James mumbled to himself as though the word were a joke. "I guess."

"Cool. I'll go straight to bed and not come down tomorrow."

"Um―"

Harry kissed his mother on the cheek, still smelling like alcohol but he didn't realize that and said goodnight. James turned to his wife. "Did we just get gypped?"

"I don't think so," Lily said confused.

"Maybe we're really bad at this," James said depressedly, putting his face in his hands.

"No, I don't think so. Maybe he just likes being alone in his room to think about his sins."

"Or to fulfill his sins," James laughed.

"James," she said smacking his forehead.

"Oww."

"You're twenty-two. Grow up. Harry's a very spiritual and God worshiping person. Get over the fact that he didn't take after you and worship Merlin."

"I think he takes both religions. He brought Bonnie back to life and I swear I heard him praying to Merlin behind that curtain, thanking him for making the spell."

"I still can't believe he did that. Everyone is coming back to life this year. It's like the miracle year. You, me, Sirius, Bonnie."

"Everyone Harry loves," James pointed out.

"He loves her. It's so sweet. He's so in love with her. It's like you and me. In seventh year of course, being all in love. Always together, always telling me how pretty I am and how much you love me."

"I haven't heard Harry say any of that."

"Well not in front of you. I think he doesn't want to answer any of your questions or show off because he wants to look cool in front of you. It's so cute James," she said clinging to his arm. "He wants to impress you."

"Impress me? I look interested in something he does and he pushes me away."

"Well, maybe he thinks you'll think less of him. But he is. It's so adorable."

"When will we know what the next one will be?" James asked moving his hand up her shirt to her bare stomach.

"In a month. In one week we'll be three months along now."

"You think we could have a little fun tonight? To celebrate our great parenting skills," he asked, leaning in to kiss her neck, moving her hair away from her neck.

"Our son got drunk after he snuck out to a club. Great parenting?" she asked, pushing him away.

"We made him happy about being grounded."

Lily laughed and leaned in to kiss him. "Don't forget the silencing charm."

\-\

Bonnie snuck into Harry's room and set Mooshie-mooshie on the floor as she headed over to his bed. She leaned over him and kissed his cheek. "Harry," she whispered. "Are you awake? Are you sober?" she added as an afterthought.

Harry laughed and rolled onto his back letting her lean over him slightly. "I'm awake."

"And sober?"

"And sober. I downed the coffee in less then a minute. Guess what?" he asked excitedly, sitting up with her.

"What!" she asked, pretending to be as equally excited.

"I got grounded. Isn't that great? All day tomorrow. I'm sitting in my room and thinking about my sins. Isn't that great?"

"Yeah…. Are you sure you're not drunk?"

Harry laughed. "Bonnie this is awesome. For once when my guardians say punishment they don't turn around and slap me. Instead I got grounded. It's like a dream come true. Though Fish won't be too happy about it. His parents started grounding him and then the next day they turned on him and forced cocaine down his throat to hide it from the police. He might be a bit suspicious that my parents are trying to get something out of me but we won't have to worry about that. Isn't this great?"

"It's wicked St. Jimmy. I'm so happy for you." She caressed his cheek gently and smiled at him. She leaned down and captured his lips on hers, only tasting the evaporating alcohol. But she didn't care. Harry's hands roamed down her waist and moved her hips over so she was on top of him. He penetrated her lips with his tongue and searched her mouth, arousing her. Bonnie moaned and moved up to pressure more passion into their kiss. Harry growled into her mouth and pushed her onto her back and straddled her waist. He sat up and pulled off his shirt surprising Bonnie into a smile. She didn't think Harry would ever show skin in his bed with a girl unless he was forced to. She wondered if it would be weird if she asked Fish about this. But the thought was erased from her mind as Harry attacked her neck. Nibbling her ear and kissing behind her ear and lickimg down her pulsing neck taking the scent of her skin as he kissed it.

"I love you," he moaned into her neck.

Bonnie rubbed her hands over his bare chest and couldn't get the words out to respond. Instead she moaned lovingly. Harry smiled against her skin and continued to kiss it. He ran his hands through her hair and lifted her hips again.

"Harry, are you sure you're sober?" she asked, surprised at his forwardness to get so close. He was half-naked in his bed with a girl. Though she had heard about much of his summer she wouldn't expect this. Especially with her.

Harry pulled away and thought about it. "You think we should stop?"

"As much as I enjoy this I think so. Before you start to lose yourself. St. Jimmy is thinking very sinfully tonight, I can tell," she joked.

Harry glared at her and moved onto his side and pulled his shirt back on. "Sorry. Now that I have you it's kind of hard to control myself."

"Do you want me to leave?" she smiled.

"No, you can stay. But you'll have to leave early. My father will probably come to check on me in the morning. And your dad will probably want to give out your punishment."

"I'll most likely get out of it. "Daddy, you know that last month I almost died. Actually I did die. How can you ground your only daughter when this could be the only time you have to spend with her?"" She smiled pleased with herself.

"I don't think that will work."

"I have a backup. "Daddy we never spend any time together! You and mummy are always busy with work."

"Does calling him daddy like when you were five help with your case?"

"Sometimes."

"So, you're going to get out of your grounding by making your father feel guilty but you know in return you're going to have to spend time with your parents. I thought you said you ran out of things to talk about as you got older."

"You have to remember everything everybody says?"

"Maybe. If I didn't I wouldn't be a good St. Jimmy now would I?"

"Not while I'm trying to make a point. I'll find a way to get out of my grounding."

"But if you got grounded, maybe you could sneak into my room and we wouldn't have to sit all by ourselves."

"And what would you plan to do with me in your bedroom when we're all alone?" she joked.

"Now who's having the dirty thoughts?" he laughed tickling her waist and pushing her back under him.


	22. Back to School

21

Back to School.

"Harry let go! We're going to be late. Let go of the door handle," Sirius yelled as him and Remus tried to pull him from the door of the limousine.

"I've made up my mind. I'm not going!"

"Harry. You have to go."

"Do you _see_ the reporters?"

"So hide your face, now come on." Giving one last tug they pulled him off the door and shoved him toward King's Cross. Bonnie grabbed his hand as they dragged each other through the crowd. Over the last week of Christmas vacation Harry had been featured in Elle Girl magazine again revealing his real age and some of his personal information and he was also in People and Cosmo Girl as a new rising star, though nobody knew exactly what he did. No one had ever seen him in a movie, he didn't sing, according to a tabloid he was running a cult that would fight in an infamous war. But in other magazines he was apparently the world's mystery man. No one knew anything about him though people were trying. Some people had gotten the basics of his parents dying and him living with the Dursleys. But the fact that his parents weren't dead anymore was unknown along with why he had a large crew of friends calling him St. Jimmy. Unfortunately, in People magazine they had advertised his cell phone number, which didn't make Bonnie very happy when he started getting girls calling him asking for dates. And in the wizarding world the French had caught pictures of him out in town and sent it to the Daily Prophet (along with their own magazines) so now the Hottest Bachelor of the Year pictures were holding up nicely for them. But not for Harry.

"I hate being famous," Harry whined, putting up his hood as they went through the portal onto platform 9 ¾. Only to be met with more reporters. Remus stood in front of him as more order members came through the portal along with Sirius. Harry found himself now so famous with press he needed more then two bodyguards. And so did Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Bonnie, since they got stalked by reporters asking them about their relationship with Harry. Harry was moved quickly through the crowd with his head lowered and covered by his hood as the order pushed him and his friends onto the train, which was filled with stalking fans and wasn't much safer then outside. They were all quickly shoved into a compartment. "Oh God, why did I have to be famous? Couldn't it have been given to someone who wants to be famous? All I wanted was to go to art school and sell paintings as an anonymous rich guy. What do I get? Magic powers, stalkers, fame, fortune, and a debt to the wizarding world to kill off an evil dude trying to kill everyone. What did I do to get all that?"

"Maybe he was trying to be nice. Being a wizard with fame and fortune really isn't all that bad," Bonnie said as he laid on her lap and let her play with his hair. "Every good life comes with some bad."

"That's so poetic pet," he said sarcastically. She smacked his forehead.

"Oww," Harry cried his forehead.

"Shh," Bonnie soothed as though she hadn't done anything. Harry glared at her.

"Aww, is the little Savior back at school?"

Harry sat up quickly at the suspicious voice only to find Malfoy. He stood up. "What are you doing here Malfoy? You're supposed to be in Azkaban."

"Aww, is that the only greeting I get? No, it's so great to see you?"

"Why would I say that?"

"Just asking. And I'm here because they let me out early because of good behavior. I promised not to do it again," he smirked.

"You had to have done something else to get out."

"Alright, so maybe I sold out my own father but he wasn't doing anything for me. I'm off the hook and my father will get out of Azkaban in a few weeks."

"You sold out your own father?"

"It was all planned. He won't be angry."

"You should leave now. How did you get in here anyway?"

"Your stupid guards were distracted with wandering girls trying to make it to your compartment." He looked over Harry's shoulder and smirked at Bonnie who quickly stood up.

Harry saw him looking and grabbed his neck and forced him through the compartment against the wall in the hall, holding him against the wall by his neck.

"Harry!" Bonnie yelled at him, catching Sirius's attention from down the hall.

"Harry!" Sirius yelled coming down the hall with Remus. Malfoy was choking and his lips were starting to turn blue. "Harry, stop," Sirius said, prying his godson's fingers off Malfoy's neck.

"Don't you ever look at her like that again," Harry snarled as Sirius pushed him away.

"I got to her once Potter," Malfoy smirked. Harry jumped at him and Sirius grabbed him around the waist to hold him back.

"Come on pretty boy," Remus said, grabbing Malfoy's collar, choking him slightly as he led him away.

"Harry stop. He's going. Calm down. We don't need someone on the train catching a picture of you punching out Malfoy and sending it to the Daily Prophet. You wanna punch something, go punch a wall. Go console your girlfriend, she looks scared." Harry stopped trying to get away and calmed down taking a deep breath. "You calm?"

"Yeah, slightly," Harry groaned.

Sirius let go of him as they heard the compartment Remus shoved Malfoy in close and lock. Harry headed back into the compartment where Bonnie looked worried. He pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry I got angry."

"I've seen you angry before Harry."

"Then what's wrong?" Harry asked, looking at her face.

"He could do it again," she said worriedly.

Harry pulled her back into a hug and sat her down still holding her. "No he won't pet. He won't come near you; I'll make sure of it. Nothing will happen to you," he assured, petting her hair and wrapping his arm around her waist. He pressed his forehead against hers and looked comfortingly into her eyes while stroking her temple.

\-\

They all filed into the Great Hall and took their seats at the Gryffindor table. Harry looked down the line of the Gryffindor table and all the girls giggled. Even the first years that had probably read everything about him over Christmas break. Harry dropped his head to the table. "I will be trampled in the hall within the week."

Bonnie put her hand on his neck and fiddled with the ends of his hair. "The end of the year doesn't look too good from here does it?"

Dumbledore made his speech, adding a bit extra for the feminine population of Hogwarts. "Please do not go near Mr. Potter unless he permits it. We don't want him being trampled, _poisoned_, or bothered. And we won't be going lightly if anyone steals any personal items," he said, looking to a group of Ravenclaw girls in particular.

They all giggled and gave Harry a flirting glance.

\-\

They all sat around the couch; Harry sunk down into his seat trying to turn invisible away from his stalking girl fans. One of them came over to ask for an autograph but Harry was snuggled up to Bonnie who quickly glared at the girl who slowly stepped away and went to tell her friends.

"You save my hand from writer's cramp love," Harry said. "I love you," he said, continuously kissing her cheeks making her giggle trying to push him away.

"Harry," she giggled as he pushed her back on the couch giving her light kisses. The girls glared at the couch and went upstairs to their dorms. "Cut it out." Harry kissed her jaw line and pulled her back up to a sitting position beside him. The boys in the common room didn't look very happy either.

"I thought he would go back to Cho and someone else would take his friend. He takes all the girls and then starts dating the hottest girl in school. I don't like him," a seventh year boy said to the others.

"He's not that bad. And he doesn't want the other girls stalking him," Dean said, defending what he believed to be his friend.

"Yeah? Where's your girlfriend?"

Dean looked over to his girlfriend who was sitting on the stairs with a group of other girls swooning over Harry. "I still don't 'hate' him."

\-\

"Harry!" Lauren called, running down the hall toward him, as he was walking Bonnie to class with Ron and Hermione. Sirius and Remus stepped forward a bit. She smiled at them as she came to a stop. "I'm not stalking him, I promise." They stepped back again watching her to make sure she didn't try anything. They weren't taking any chances with the way girls were talking on the train. " Harry, you have a free period this hour, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think you could meet me in the library? I thought that maybe we could get a head start on our big project so we'll both have some spare time to work on our other crap. Sound good?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you there," Harry agreed.

"Great. Don't get trampled," she laughed. She smiled to Bonnie before leaving down the hall to meet her giggly friends. "Shut up."

Harry put his arm around Bonnie's waist as they headed back down the hallway. They stopped at the Transfiguration classroom and Harry kissed her cheek. "I'll be here to pick you up for Potions. Sit close to Ron and Hermione; I don't want Malfoy anywhere near you."

"Harry, I think you're more worried then I am. I'll be fine my little worry-wart." She kissed his cheek. "See you in an hour," she said holding his face. She smiled at him and headed in to take her seat by Ron and Hermione.

Harry stood there for a moment watching Draco who was watching Bonnie who was paying attention to her assignment. Harry finally left when McGonnagal whacked Malfoy's desk to make him pay attention. Harry turned from the class and headed down to the library to meet up with Lauren.

He threw his bag on the table beside them and sat down. "So, I wasn't paying attention. What's this stupid project on?"

"You weren't paying attention? But Harry Potter always pays attention, he's perfect in every way," she said, mocking the girls in their class.

"Stop mocking them. I get enough of it in class without you bothering me too huh?" he asked grabbing a pencil and paper from his bag.

"Sorry," she laughed. "Um, the project is on the current war."

"Oh this should be fun."

"Yeah. The Professor thinks we should take advantage of being in a war and try to win it. Hypothetically of course."

"Of course," Harry said, sticking a pen in his mouth. Lauren had noticed when Harry worked on maps he always used a pen. You would expect if he didn't want to use a quill he would use a pencil but he used a pen. He took his pen from his mouth and started a sketch of a plan.

When the hour was up they were practically finished. They both started to pack up their things. "Thanks for giving up your free hour to do this."

"Hey, it's homework. That's what I would have done during this hour anyway."

Lauren smiled. "Um, Harry."

"Yeah," he said, looking over their papers to check it.

"I know you'll completely hate me for asking and you'll probably never want to talk to me again but… can I have your autograph?"

Harry slowly raised his eyes to her.

"Oh I know. You thought I was normal. I am. It's for my friends. They know I'm working with you and they're black mailing me into getting an autograph from you. I'm so sorry."

"No, it's okay. Don't worry about it," he said. He signed his name on a piece of parchment, tore it off and gave it to her. "Don't worry about it. Wouldn't want you to have your secrets revealed just because I couldn't sign my name." He grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder and headed out of the library.

Lauren looked at the paper in her hands. "I have a Harry Potter autograph in my fingers." She looked down on the table and picked up the pen off the table. "And the pen he was eating. I can take his saliva. The Daily Prophet will love me."

\-\

Harry stood outside the Transfiguration classroom waiting for Bonnie to leave. When she came out of the class he quickly pulled her from the crowd and pulled her against him and kissed her.

"Hello to you to," she said, when he finally let go.

"Hi." He watched Draco walk out of class and down the hall.

Bonnie touched his cheek and made him look to her. "He's not going to try it again Harry. That would be stupid."

"It was stupid the first time too," he said grudgingly.

"Come on. Walk me to class or you'll be late." She pulled him off the wall. "Come on. Later on I'll sick Mooshie-mooshie on you with lots of kisses, make you feel all better," she said babyish.

"Prose gives me kisses," Harry said as they walked.

"He does? When did that happen?"

"When he became jealous of your dog." Bonnie laughed as they continued to Potions together.

\-\

"Potter!" McGonnagal yelled angrily. "You should be well aware now that you are _not _supposed to blow up the _Transfiguration _room!"

"It was an accident," Harry said innocently.

"If you keep having these _accidents_ we'll run out of classrooms before the school year ends."

"Sorry," he apologized, as though he was five and about to start laughing once she left the room.

"Class is dismissed," she said.

They all gathered their things and climbed through the rubble that was the classroom. A girl screamed as another piece of the ceiling fell in front of her. Her boyfriend grabbed her arm and dragged her gracefully through the room.

Harry saw Luna struggling to get her bag from under a heavy rock that had fallen from the ceiling.

"Let me help," Harry said, lifting the rock so she could grab her bag from underneath.

"Thanks," she said, putting her bag over her shoulder.

"It was me who made the ceiling fall," he said, putting the rock back down.

"Oh but it was just an accident of course," she said sarcastically.

"It was an accident!" Harry lied as if he believed it to be true. "I would never do it on purpose!"

"Of course you wouldn't. I didn't imply anything," she lied, stepping through the rubble.

"Of course you didn't," Harry mumbled to himself. "Hey!" he called following her through the rubble. "What are you doing for our now free period?"

"Reading, I think. Doing homework. I've still got OWL's."

"Oh right. How did you get in this class anyway? I was going to ask before we left for vacation but I got a little busy."

"Yeah I heard. How is Bonnie anyway? Voldemort didn't hurt her did he? Not too much I mean?"

"Oh, no. Not too much," he lied, not wanting anyone to think Bonnie a wandering dead person or that Harry could bring people back to life.

"Well they thought I was really good. I would have only been bumped up to sixth year transfiguration but McGonnagal said I read too much. She's the one who suggested I be moved ahead."

"I wonder who did it to me. I would rather be back in regular Transfiguration. What am I going to take in my seventh year? I'm already taking my transfiguration, History of Magic, Battle Tactics, Curse Breaking, and all that."

"You can always have a whole bunch of free periods. Or retake your sixth year classes or seventh year classes for an easy grade."

"Yeah. So how was your vacation? Do anything fun?"

"I went to a funeral," she said dismally.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

"It was my father's."

"Oh." He went quiet as they walked down the hall. He wished he had never brought it up. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I'm not the only one it's happened to. I heard a lot of people have been losing family members this year. One of the girls in my Potions class lost her aunt. And she lives in the U.S."

"Looks like Voldemort got around to traveling," Harry said.

"Yeah."

"You know, we should have something at school, to get student's minds off the war and homework. No one wants to think about that."

"That would be nice."

"Maybe I'll talk to Dumbledore. We'll see. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Thanks." She looked up at him and smiled. _The Savior does a very good job at his destiny,_ Luna thought. _He has no problem saving people, whether it's small or big._

\-\

That day was known as the day that Harry started to get grumpy. That night he had started going back to daily training to pep up for the war. And from his training he became grumpy from pain. He would leave the common room after putting his bag down after classes and come back at nine o'clock throwing himself down on the couch beside Bonnie or maybe read. The Gryffindor Quidditch team had joined him in being grumpy most of the day since he took them down with him during Quidditch training. And then they ended up winning a lot of games because they totally slaughtered the other houses, so nobody minded anyone being grumpy.

So some weeks later, everyone was very glad the moment…

James threw a pack of papers down on his desk angrily. "Well, thanks to someone in the school, one of your peers apparently, it has come to Professor Dumbledore's attention that we all need a distraction from the war and homework. So, just to take up valuable class time by wasting it, we're going to take this stupid poll. What is this poll on? What you would like at your school dance. Its in two months, only for the fifth, sixth and seventh years. Be thankful. You better be. We never had any stupid dance in my years at Hogwarts and I swear it would have made it a whole lot easier to get a girlfriend. So I hope you all take advantage of your good fortune. Or so help me Merlin I will put all your juvenile arses in detention."

"James, go sit at your desk, you're scaring the students," Remus said leading James to his seat. Sirius stood at the front.

"Don't mind your professor. His wife is pregnant and he's having a bad day." He grabbed the packets and started to hand them out to everyone. "Take one, pass it back. Now fill out all the questions, turn it in and then you can leave. And Malfoy, if you put one thing on there about your friend Voldemort I will put you back in Azkaban," he threatened.

Malfoy and his friends laughed while Sirius continued to glare.

"When you're finished and on your way back to your common room or wherever, you can think about who you're going to vote king and queen of the dance. Not that I agree with that, it's just a huge popularity contest. But if you would like to run or nominate someone you should start thinking about it now I guess. There will be a ballot box at the dance, you vote and they'll be crowned."

They all filled out their forms, turned them in and left. Bonnie waited for Ron and Hermione outside the room before heading to find Harry who was quietly sitting on the stairs near the center of the corridors that were finally free of his giggling fans. His tie was flung over his shoulder while it was still tied around his neck.

"Harry," Bonnie called, walking over to him and sitting beside him as he looked up at her.

"Hey love."

"Why are you out of class early?"

"Why are you?"

"We took a poll for a school dance that's in two months. To get our minds off homework and war."

"Oh," Harry laughed. "Well, we got out of Curse Breaking early. Someone got hit with a pretty bad curse, the person sitting next to him screamed, knocked over a bottle of acid and now there's a huge hole in the floor."

"So you've been sitting here reading―" she looked at the cover of his book ― "The Communist Manifesto?"

"Don't mock my reading. I would be looking through that book you got me for Christmas but it's a lot to carry around."

"Of course. Have you taken the poll yet?"

"Yeah. Are we gonna go back to the common room?" Harry asked.

"Lunch is in a few minutes. We mine-as-well just head to the Great Hall," Ron said.

Harry stood up and put his arm around Bonnie's waist as they headed to the hall.

"Who do you think will win King and Queen?"

"You and whoever the girls agree to vote for," Ron said.

"Not me. No guy would ever vote for me and girls don't exactly make up the population of the school."

"I'm sure your wacko fans will think of something to get you away from me," Bonnie said clinging to his arm.

"Why do you say that?"

Bonnie pointed to a group of girls who just got out their class and were planning their votes for Harry. They saw Bonnie and glared but gave a smile and walked away giggling when they saw Harry watching them. "Last dance I went to I spent locked in a closet by Cousin Fluer with the biggest dork in Durmstrang."

"No one's going to lock you in a closet with Neville, Bonnie," Ron laughed.

Someone slapped him on the back of the head and they all turned to see Neville walking casually away with Lavender Brown.

Harry snorted. "You can't insult a man who's going out with Lavender Brown, Ron," he smiled.

"When did this happen?"

"This morning. Surprising isn't it? Lucky Neville."

Bonnie shoved his arm.

"What? I meant I'm happy for them. You look rather grumpy love," he said, slowly leaning into her new nickname. (Love instead of Pet because they're getting more serious. Pet was her kid nickname because they were friends.)

"I'm not grumpy. Your fans are just starting to get on my nerves."

"You just need nourishment darling. Let's get to lunch," he said, picking her up and putting her over his shoulder.

"Harry! What are you doing? Put me down!" she yelled.

"Not until you calm your tone Pet."

"I'm calm," she growled evilly.

"That doesn't sound calm at all Pet," he said disappointedly.

"Harry, people are going to look up my skirt!" she said angrily.

"Your robe covers all my darling."

"St. Jimmy, this is not at all saintly!"

"When we're at the Great Hall I will put you down."

Bonnie slumped over his shoulder ignoring the stares they were getting from other students. First years looked confused. When they came to the doors he set her down.

"Calm now?" he asked her calmly.

Bonnie punched him in the shoulder and pulled him to their table. "Tell me, why are you reading The Communist Manifesto?"

"I'm looking for a secret code in the reading."

"What does it say so far?"

"Nothing. It's just a bunch of letters. Did Sirius happen to tell you why my father's all antsy today?"

"He said it was because your mum's pregnant and he's not having a good day today."

"That's what he said to me. Mum's been pregnant for now closing in on five months. They're just now figuring this out?"

"Maybe your mother is worried. She is alone at home while your father is here. And girls get fat when they're pregnant. They don't enjoy it. And it's hard to walk around and do stuff for yourself while carrying that big stomach. And all the food cravings and morning sickness―"

"I know what happens when you're pregnant Hermione. Can't she make some friends? She likes Tonks, and Ron's mother. She can hang out with them."

"It's not the same Harry. Your father would probably like to be with his wife during these months. You only have four more before the baby comes."

"What a great last four months of happiness it shall be for me."

"What is it with you and children?" Ron asked.

"They're disgusting. They're always sticky, they drool, they smell, they eat like pigs, they're like Ron."

"Hey!"

"Not all kids smell Harry," Hermione said.

"Babies smell. And they can't clean themselves. They poop and pea on themselves." Ron stopped eating.

"They smell good most of the time."

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Let's pick up a lighter, more interesting topic that won't make Ron lose his appetite."

"Bonnie, we should collect Ginny for the next Hogsmeade trip so we can pick out our dresses for the dance."

"Alright. Harry what are you wearing so I know how to coordinate our outfits."

"I don't know. Are we wearing robes?"

"I don't know. The theme wasn't picked yet."

"I put dainty muggle."

"Will Dumbledore know what that means?"

"I put it in full detail description."

"Me to. That way Ron won't have to wear his frilly robes. It's much easier to get a cool suit. Plus, it would be awesome to see Malfoy try to put together a muggle outfit," he said smiling evilly.

"I can't wait to go shopping. I wonder who Ginny will take?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. Her and Fish got pretty close over Christmas break. It's so beautiful. He needs someone to settle down with. He's too much of a free spirit," Bonnie said, looking to Harry.

"Yeah, but if he hurts her in any way, I'll hold him down and let Ron beat the hell out of him. I don't care how long we've been friends. Ginny's a good girl and I won't let him play with her. Maybe Hanna but not Ginny. You don't think he is do you?" he asked Bonnie.

"No. I think he likes her. Call him up and see what he's doing. I bet he's doing homework."

"I don't think anyone does homework there, Bonnie. It's basically Juvi with a school where everyone skips class."

"Call him up though. Now, I want to see," she smiled.

Harry grabbed his phone from his back pocket and dialed up Fish, while giving Bonnie a look that said he's not doing his homework. She smiled at him.

"Hello?" Fish asked, stopping in the middle of the corridor with Tim and Tom at his side, who were fixing each other's emo fringe.

"Hey Fish. What are you doing?"

Fish looked around him, confused by the flat topic phone call. "St. Jimmy? Kim or Pim, are you practicing voice changes again?"

"No, it's St. Jimmy. What are you doing?"

"Well, Tim, Tom and me are skipping lunch to visit the new teacher's plastic breasts. They're supposed to look like Hyp's stepmother's. What are you doing and why do you want to know?"

"I'm eating lunch. What are you doing tonight?"

"_Masturbating_, what the hell! Why do you want to know?"

"So you don't have a girlfriend tonight?" he asked suspiciously.

Fish was quiet and looked to Tim and Tom who decided to take this time to sew up one of the arms of their tight black jackets. "St. Jimmy, if you're wondering about Ginny… shut up!" He hung up and dragged Tim and Tom along the hall.

Harry laughed and hung up. "It's so adorable to hear Fish hung up on a girl," he smiled.

"Aww. Why didn't you tell him I said hi?" Bonnie asked.

"He hung up on me."

"Oh well."

\-\

"Would you girls hurry it up? We're going to miss the dance!" Ron yelled as him, Harry and Dean, who had agreed to go to the dance with Ginny but was told not to expect a relationship because her boyfriend was outside the country at the moment, waited downstairs in the common room.

"We're coming!" Hermione yelled back. She walked down the stairs first wearing a black dress, spaghetti strapped and went loose down to her knees there was ribbon tied around her waist. Her hair was slicked up into a bun with little strands of curls falling on her shoulders.

"Wow, Mionie. You look beautiful," Ron said, standing up to take her hand.

"Why thank you. Now aren't you glad I took so long to make myself pretty for you?"

"I guess," he smiled.

Ginny came down next. She had her hair down left in curls with a few strands pulled back for style. She was wearing a red dress that fell to her knees and if she would spin it would twirl in a circle. (I love that.) And flat red shoes on her feet. Dean walked over to her and took her arm. They all looked up the stairs.

"Bonnie, are you coming down?" Harry yelled.

"Coming."

She came out of the dorm and walked down the stairs wearing a strapless dark blue dress that hugged her curves and flared out at the bottom just above her knees showing off her thin legs. She had laced up her red Dock Martins just for a bit of spunk and her hair was pinned back to look even more "Roaring 20's" style. She had put on just a bit of blush on the apples of her cheeks and some red lipstick. "Don't you dare make fun, Harry. This is very dainty muggle. I'm wearing blue," she said.

"I wasn't going to say anything," Harry said, snapping his mouth closed. "You look beautiful."

Bonnie stopped on the stairs for a second to see if he was serious then continued. "Well thank you. You don't look so bad yourself," she said coming over to him. Harry was wearing a casual suit since he always said he looked bad in regular ones and a T-shirt underneath with his hightops still on his feet.

"Well I tried. And look. I dressed Ron," he smiled, putting an arm around Ron.

"Yes, I'm actually enjoying these shoes to. They're very, airy and athletic. And they match everything."

Harry hugged him. "He's turning into me," he said happily.

"You're hugging me."

Harry pulled away and smacked his head. "You should be overjoyed. I don't hug everyone you know?"

"Let's head down before everyone else gets there," Hermione said, and grabbed her boyfriend from Harry. They all headed out of the commons bidding the other boys' farewell as they stood to wait for their girlfriends who were taking exceedingly long.

They headed to the Great Hall where all the tables had been removed and the hall had been beautifully decorated by the prefects and heads of house. With a little help from Harry and Bonnie since some of the others didn't know what dainty muggle meant. (Hermione took a guess but couldn't get all the specifics.)

The hall was painted up in beautiful people. More of the "Roaring 20's" ahead as they entered. Everyone had guessed on their outfits and did pretty well at it or had their muggleborn friends. The tables were done up fancy with white table clothed round tables set with plates and perfect settings and a rose in the middle of each table. Everything looked clean and expensive (like America's great Depression for the rich people).

"It's beautiful. We did such a good job," Hermione said.

"Yes. And I absolutely love the band," Harry said looking at the stage where The Dresden Dolls were setting up their equipment. "They're perfect. An Emo band but a good choice."

Sirius and James were standing at the vote box for King and Queen of the dance. Someone went to put their vote in. Sirius slapped her hand away interrupting his conversation with James. He grabbed the person's ballots and sifted them to see five of them. "You get one vote. No cheating."

"I was voting for my friends."

"Tell them to do it themselves. And the box will know if you've already voted so don't try to come back," he threatened. She sighed and walked away.

Sirius put one vote in the box and looked at the others. "All for Harry. I wonder who queen is going to be?"

"Actually I saw a fair few votes go in there for Ron. That should be exciting."

"Yeah. Ron never wins anything and Harry doesn't want to win. It's wonderful."

"Yeah. Say how is your lovely relationship with Jackeline going?" he asked smiling deviously.

"It is going fine. Now Remus and me both have girlfriends ten years younger then us. She just got out of school seven years ago."

"And Tonks got out three years ago. He still beats you in that category."

"You know they're still having problems. It's his entire fault. He has to get over the fact that she doesn't care he's a werewolf."

"You wouldn't be talking about me now would you?"

They both turned to see Remus. "Of course not Remmy," they both lied simultaneously.

Remus smirked. "Don't talk about me. My relationship is fine. How is your wife James?" he asked.

"Lillian is fine. Shut up!"

The kids walked over. "What's wrong with mum?" Harry asked.

"Oh, nothing Harry. Your mother is fine."

"Then why did you say it like that?"

"Let's just put it this way. You get your anger problems from your mother and being pregnant and ten pounds heavier is not really making her the happiest person."

"Well why isn't she here as your date?"

"Because she thinks she'll look fat in a dress."

"Then why aren't you home with her?"

"Because I'll have to sleep on the couch. Now put your stupid vote in and enjoy your stupid dance."

"Fine, Man With Sympathy Pains," Harry joked. He grabbed a piece of paper and signed Ron's name.

"Mate you're not voting for me."

"Why not? Everyone one else is. And you're not voting for me or I'll kill you," he said, dropping the ballot in the box. "I voted for Hermione to."

"What?"

"You both just look so adorable when you're shocked," Harry laughed pulling Bonnie away as she slipped her ballot in.

"I'm voting for you both too," Ginny said voting as well.

"Yeah?" Ron yelled. "Well I'm voting for Harry. Suffer."

"That's harsh Ron," Sirius said.

"Shut up," he said stuffing in his ballot with Hermione's and walking away.

"Ugh. He just told me to shut up."

"Too bad you're not a teacher," James laughed.

"I can still kick his little arse."

\-\

Once everyone was gathered in the center of the Great Hall Dumbledore stood at the front of the stage where everyone gathered around. "Welcome everyone to the first dance of the year. We usually don't have dances besides the Yule Ball, a special occasion, but this year it was suggested so we could all forget our stress that has gathered over this dismal year. Now I will have Mr. Potter come up to introduce the band because I still don't know who they are."

Harry sighed and went toward the stage past Dumbledore. "I told you who they are. Do you enjoy putting me on display?"

"I'm sorry my boy I thought you enjoyed it," he said, sounding completely serious.

Harry knew he was joking but it didn't make him smile. Dumbledore patted him on the shoulder and Harry headed up the stairs to the stage. He walked up to the microphone and all the girls in the hall started to cheer and jump up and down.

"I am not the band!" Harry said loudly over their screams. They all calmed so he could talk. "Thank you. Uh, yeah. I hope you all enjoy the dance and the great music. Even if they are a bit Emo. And while I'm up here I'd like to add this one note. Don't vote for me. Anyway, everyone give a big hand for The Dresden Dolls." Everyone cheered and Harry jumped gracefully off the front of the stage making sure to dodge his crazy fans and made his way to Bonnie.

"That was lovely Harry."

Harry smirked. "May I have this dance?"

"You may." She took his hand and they headed to the center of the room to dance to the slow song.

\-\

Cho glared at him from afar as she stood at the side with her friends while their boyfriends talked about junk they didn't care about. "He sure couldn't dance in fourth year. What did she do to him? Put him through training?"

"He's a great dancer," one of them said dreamily watching Harry twirl Bonnie and then pull her back to him and dip her at the precise moment. He had a beautiful smile on his face that only made him more attractive.

"McNeal seems to make him so happy," another said.

"That's because he doesn't know what he could really have," Cho said uncrossing her arms and walking away looking evilly devious.

"What is she going to do?" one asked the other. She just shrugged.

\-\

Cho walked over to the vote box to notice that the three guarding it were fighting about something or other like they were still seventeen. Cho rolled her eyes and pointed her wand at the box and said a spell.

"I'll make sure McNeal never gets her man again."

\-\

"Having fun darling?" Harry asked as they slow danced again, slowly spinning in circles.

"I am having a lovely time dearest," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You wanna go get something to drink?" She nodded and they headed over to the tables as the song began to end and Harry poured them both a drink. When the song was over McGonnagal took the stage.

"Could I please have everyone's attention?" Everyone quieted down. "Thank you. We are now going to announce the dance's King and Queen. And if for any reason it seems like someone stuffed the box, I'll find out who it was. Trust me. Now, the King is…. Oh what a surprise. Harry Potter."

Harry spit out his drink and Bonnie backed away from him quickly.

"What?"

"Potter, just get up here and accept your crown."

Harry walked to the front of the stage and turned to the microphone. "I told everyone not to vote for me," he said angrily.

"We like to listen to you complain," one of the guys yelled.

"Oh thanks. See if I save any of _you_ in the next war," he said, making the crowd laugh, walking away from the microphone as McGonnagal shoved a crown on his head.

"What a lovely speech Potter," McGonnagal said taking the microphone. "Now, our Queen is…" everyone held their breath "… Cho Chang."

All her friends screamed in excitement along with the other girls. Cho was smiling madly as she walked up on stage and took her tiara roughly from McGonnagal's hands. She set it on her head and stood at the microphone.

"Oh, I don't know what to say. Thank you for voting for me. It's such an honor."

"Please. It's a school dance," Harry rolled his eyes.

Cho walked over to Harry and tried to pull him into a hug. Harry pushed her away harshly. "Professor, I think there has been a mistake."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because none of the guys voted for Cho and since they make up the majority population I'd say there's a problem there."

"Ms. Chang. You didn't happen to fill the box did you?"

"Now professor. As Head Girl I am utterly disgraced that you would think me capable of such a thing."

"I'd say you were capable. How many of you actually voted for Cho?" Harry asked the crowd.

Even half the girls didn't raise their hands. Harry turned to Professor McGonnagal.

"And who 'did' everyone vote for?" she asked.

They all pointed at Bonnie who was standing next to Ginny. "What?" Ginny pushed her onto the stage and Harry grabbed her hand. McGonnagal took the tiara off Cho's head and set it on Bonnie's with a smile.

"There, you have your new King and Queen. How much fun. Ms. Chang, please come with me." Cho silently followed her professor and everyone cheered for Harry and Bonnie.

Bonnie pulled on Harry's hand. "Quick, I have to show off to Hanna," she said pulling him off the stage. Harry took off his crown as they got back to the crowd.

"Here Ron, have my hat," he said, patting it onto Ron's head. "It matches your hair very well."

\-\

An hour later while everyone was dancing a large thundering shook the hall.


	23. Meeting the Other Suburban Children Befo

AN: Sorry for the long wait and this is a short chapter. :( School started back up and I've been kind of busy. But I promise to get the whole thing up so that whoever wants to read it, can read it. I can't promise gold but I hope you enjoy it.

22

Meeting the Other Suburban Children before the Final Battles.

\-\

An hour before on Mongolia Crescent and Privet Drive…

\-\

"Hey girly!" a customer said loudly as she passed the table. "Get me another drink."

"My name is not girly, and you could say 'please ma'am. If you're not busy with all your other orders, could you please get me another drink? Thank you.'"

"Yeah, go get me another beer _bitch_." Ma'am rolled her eyes and walked behind the bar.

"Hey ma'am, if you go get Ms. Preppy over there another piece of lettuce I'll get Rude Ass," Dig whispered to her.

"Thanks Dig. It's our last few minutes before we leave and that's when people start getting mean. Should I be thankful or angry that I can never leave work happy?" she asked before walking away to get a salad. She delivered it to the table that was filled with five slutty, preppy girls sitting around looking her up and down. Ma'am set the plate on the table. "Enjoy."

"Nice outfit," one girl giggled.

"Oh thanks, I love yours to. Though I think it's a bit too much pink. It kind of brings out that huge spot on you forehead."

The girl gasped and put her hand over her forehead. Ma'am smirked and walked away. She headed over to Dig pulling off her apron.

"St. Jimmy's not going to like that," he said following her to the back room to change.

"He's not here. He's held up at school having a fun time with all his dorky friends," she said pushing through the door and heading to her locker.

"True. And that was a good come back. You'd think people would be nicer to other people when they look like crap but instead they just try to pull you down with them. Muggles are such an awful creature."

Ma'am turned to him. She was tall, thin, long wavy black hair, gray eyes, and a small face; dressed in a short black skirt, one black high top and one red low top and a Ramones T-shirt. A chain hung from around her wrist and laced between her fingers. Her makeup was clean and innocent with light colors. (Her mother wants her to be a model to pay for her mother's drug addiction.)

Dig was tall, slightly pudgy in the cheeks and stomach (but in a hot, Patrick from Fallout Boy, way) straight, brown hair, brown eyes; dressed in jeans, green high tops, a guitar pick belt and a wife beater under a black hooded sweat jacket. (Mother succeeded in committing suicide after her third try in a mental institution. His father blames him and abuses his son to fuel his depression.)

"They are," Ma'am agreed. "Maybe that's why I hate them. They remind me of my mother. They all want to be perfectionists." She closed her locker and they went out the backdoor of the restaurant. "So where are we going?"

"I thought you were partying with Ial this weekend."

"Oh I can't. Her, Oye! and Avin are having a little blood party with their clan. She said if I want to get bitten sure come ahead but I like the sunlight so…. What are you doing tonight?"

"I'm going to visit Omi and Haim."

"Why is Haim there?"

"He came out to his parents. They kicked him out and Omi offered to let him live with her."

"Aww, poor thing. Maybe I should tell my mother I'm a lesbian. Do you think she would kick me out?"

"Not while you're making her money."

"But nobody likes a lesbian model."

"Most guy models are gay, aren't they?"

"Oh poo. Anyway, I'll just join you. This should be fun. Is Omi's parents home?"

"No. I think a few other people are coming over tonight to."

"Ooh. Oh hey! Have you gotten the message from Fish yet? Apparently St. Jimmy and his pet are now dating. It took us this long just to get a message. They started dating over Christmas break. I was so tissed. We don't get told anything anymore just because we don't go to school."

"You're just crabby. Wanna grab a beer before we head to Omi's?"

"No. She'll already have some there. But doesn't that just suck? And when is this stupid battle going to come? When Hell's Angel got kidnapped did any of us get called? No! It was Tim, Tom and Fish."

"So St. Jimmy didn't want to use us till he needed to. They made it anyway."

"And then Hell's Angel practically died. If they had us there he would have had enough people to easily kick Voldemort's ass and someone else to go take Bonnie out of the Dungeon before she even got hit. But no. Instead we're left here for some disgusting bald guy to come grab my ass while I pass him his beer. He really cares about us."

"He didn't want to put us in danger when he didn't need to. Sounds like he cares to me. He didn't know."

"He works for God," she said mockingly, "shouldn't he know all?"

"Hey! Stop mocking St. Jimmy. He's done a lot for you."

"He's done a lot for everyone else. He just let me into the group so I can play battle with Voldemort even though I'm not part of the wizarding world. He just uses us for his own selfish reasons."

"Yeah, that's what Troy said and look where he is now. Out of the mental institution and with a sane, non-threatening, non-sexually abusive therapist. You know why? Because St. Jimmy made it happen."

"Oh yes, and how did that happen?"

"He has good negotiation skills."

"Uh huh."

"What about, Avin and Oye! He saved them from going on killing sprees every night after they killed their own parents. Why do you think they haven't thrown themselves out in the sun yet? St. Jimmy forgives you for your sins and makes you feel better about yourself by telling you everything will be okay."

"Anyone can do that. I can do that."

"Without scaring them first?"

"Okay so maybe I can't."

"There are a lot of people in the world and ninety-nine percent of the population are untrustful human beings. St. Jimmy cures the world enough to turn that number upside down."

"What is with you and metaphors?"

"They come naturally."

Ma'am rolled her eyes and they continued on their way to Omi's.

\-\

They came up to the door on Mongolia Crescent of Omi's house and walked right in as though they lived there. They did that in everyone's home besides a few choice people for a few choice reasons. St. Jimmy: because if one wizard, muggle born or not stepped foot in his uncle's house he would get beaten to a pulp and everyone tried to keep him safe when they could because he did the same to them. Bonnie: because her father might have people over; though she would be happy to have him fired and spend more time at home, she didn't. And she was embarrassed about her mother and liked to know her mother was gone from the house before her friends stepped foot in it. Toilet: because you would have to touch the door handle six times before stepping into the house and if you stepped on the wrong tile when coming in you couldn't come back for an hour. Trick: because his father might be having sex in front of the door or some odd part of the house the moment you walk in. And Siphe: because his eight brothers and sisters will attack you down the front stairs of the house before you knock and then try to murder you. (And you can't fight off little five, six and seven year-olds; you'll get in trouble.)

They walked in to find it the place to be tonight. If someone's parents weren't home, that's where everyone else was. Haim, Hyp, and Phib (I'm sure you could guess what his name means) were showing off their band skills playing; Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying, by Fall Out Boy, in the background. Everyone was dancing, drinking, or talking. Or all three. Dig left Ma'am to go join some of the men so she went and sat down beside the keg.

It wasn't that she disliked St. Jimmy. He was St. Jimmy. It was just that she would rather be fighting her own bad guys right now instead of waiting for his command. She was a bit of a feminist and very grunge. She was just emotionally depressed with everything and she showed it through to everyone by being annoyed with them all. They got used to it. (And sometimes she was funny.)

The band took a break and someone turned on the stereo. Hyp searched the crowd and found Ma'am looking bored beside the keg drinking a beer from a plastic cup. He quickly headed over to her and sat down on the chair beside her. "Hey Ma'am."

"Hello Hyp," she said, annoyed.

"So how was work?"

"Fine. I'll just be working another job tomorrow. It's a never ending cycle."

"Oh right. You have that photo shoot tomorrow. You're so lucky."

"Of course I am."

"So when does your photo shoot end?"

"Five o'clock."

"Do you think you would like to come with me to the movies―"

"No."

"Oh come on Ma'am."

"No!"

"You know you want me."

"You're annoying me Hyp."

"I can understand you not wanting to go out at this time―"

"I won't go out with you because you're a pig."

"I'm not a cop!"

"No, but you're a big pony."

"That is a misuse of slang my dear," he smiled.

"How's your step-mother?" she asked rudely.

"How's your pig farm?" he asked spat angrily at her. He then collected himself quickly, changing back to nice a second later. "You know you want me. And we don't call her stepmother; we call her father's wife. Didn't you know? And her and her plastic breasts's are fine."

"Breasts's?"

"She has two. Not that I want to notice that."

Ma'am sighed and rolled her eyes. "The pig farm is fine Hyp," she said, feeling sorry for him. (She helps her best friend Ial bottle pig blood.)

"And how is your prep school? Still braiding your hair?"

"No, we're on to party planning. Never put your husband beside his business friend's wife."

"What husband?"

Ma'am rolled her eyes.

"I'll be your husband if you want," he said nervously. "And you won't even have to worry about the associate's wife. I would never cheat on you."

"Hyp, we're sixteen, and I just insulted you. Are you really proposing?'

"I wasn't proposing!" he said quickly, standing from his seat. He walked away quickly to Zak and Jake as Omi sat down beside Ma'am and giggled at her.

\-\

A few minutes later…

"Everyone, SHUT UP!" Dig yelled. Everyone went quiet and all the excitement came to a crashing halt. They all turned to the television as the volume turned up. "Holy mother of God," he whispered.

They all turned away from the television as three people came running into the house and quickly closed the door behind them holding it back as something hit the door.

Ial, Oye!, and Avin, stood against the door, blood smeared around their mouth. "Muggles have gone insane already. We have to get out of here," Ial said in a Russian accent and through her pointed fangs.


	24. The Date

23

The Date

Another bang shook the hall and everyone fell to the floor. Harry covered Bonnie as many other boys did to their own girlfriends while they watched the door to the Great Hall. The doors burst open and a tall man walked in with two men following slightly behind him and slightly at his sides.

"Isn't that the guy from church?" Bonnie asked.

Harry watched him as the teachers went to hold him at wand point. He stood still, looking like he was waiting.

"Hold on!" Harry yelled, standing up off the floor. Bonnie stood as he walked over to them but didn't follow. Harry ran over and tried to push through the teachers. "A little quick to judge," he said, shoving through them to stand in front of the man without fear. Everyone stepped back from him confused. Harry took off his jacket and dropped it on the floor and the St. Jimmy stick appeared in his hand. He did his normal St. Jimmy bow, stroking his hand across the floor as the other man did a slight bow. Harry stood as the man held out his hand holding a note. Harry gently took the note as the other man gave a slight nod. Harry opened the note gently and scanned it slowly before closing it and grabbing a note from thin air and holding it out to the mysterious man. He took the note and they both bowed to each other again.

The man turned and began to head out of the room. The doors closed and a large boom came again and then they left. Harry looked back at the note. He sighed sadly and closed it again.

"Harry, who was that?"

"That was the guy from the church," he said quietly, hoping the other students didn't hear him. "Voldemort's taking me as an actual threat now. He sent that man as a messenger." He looked up at them. "I have some very awful news to announce to everyone."

"Maybe you should tell us first and then I'll announce it," Dumbledore offered.

"I think it should come from me. Everyone is already staring."

"If you want." They all cleared a path and Harry walked away and pulled out his phone. He pressed one number and put it to his ear.

"Just got the message?" asked Fish.

"It's on television?"

"Every stupid channel."

"Just checking." They both hung up. Harry headed up to the stage and stood at the microphone looking nervous. "Hey, uh. That guy that just came into the Great Hall works for Lord Voldemort." Everyone gasped. "Yeah, anyway, he came as the messenger to deliver this letter from Voldemort to me now that he sees me as a threat. But it's not just for me. I'm supposed to announce it to all of you because none of us watch television, if you even know what that is. So, I'll announce it to you and then you all have to promise not to start screaming hysterically till I'm finished."

He opened the letter and read:

\-\

"To whom it may concern,

This morning, over the British newscast I made a special announcement to muggles around the world. Wizards are among them, is what I told them."

Girls began to scream. "I told you not to scream until I was finished," Harry reprimanded. The girls put their hands over their mouths and held close to their dates. "As I was saying…

"And of course they all believed me soon enough. After I used some choice curses against them. I suggest all wizards and witches stay in their houses while all the muggles go rampant against you. Unless you want to help kill the poor muggles you… blah, blah, blah… muggle lovers," Harry edited. "If not, you'll just be letting me get away and win the war. Either way, I'll be having fun and I will win. Hope everyone likes it indoors.

Your evil Dark Lord,

Lord Voldemort," he finished.

"Well at least he sounds so nice about. But that's it. Headmaster, you can take it from here." He jumped off the stage and headed over to a table as Dumbledore tried to settle the crowd.

Bonnie went to sit down beside him as he looked to be trying to sort something out. "Are you alright Harry?"

Harry smiled and looked up at her. "I'm fine. I thought he was giving me the time of the war. I actually freaked out a little there."

"A little. Look at Malfoy," Ron said. "I think him and his friends are having a mental breakdown. McGonnagal doesn't look too happy either. Can you see your father and Sirius?" They all turned to James and Sirius and Remus who were practically hyperventilating. Lily had suddenly shown up, apparently having been watching the news and they were both hanging on her childishly as she tried to comfort them.

"Yeah, all the purebloods are freaked out," Harry said.

"Yeah, all the purebloods. I'm a pureblood Harry! I'm freaked out. This is horrible. Why are you so _calm_? This is a national wizard secret Harry. We've all been outed. We can't obliviate the entire muggle world. It doesn't work that way. They're going to kill us all. We're all going to have to stay in our houses for years and never leave. Haven't you ever heard of the Salem witch trials? It's going to happen all over. Except this time Voldemort has already shown them what kind of magic we can do―"

"You said Voldemort," Harry interrupted.

"―We're all going to live in our houses for years and never leave and be run by muggles until Voldemort kills them all then we're all going to be run by Voldemort. It's a total non-win situation Harry. This secret has been kept for over three million years and Voldemort ripped off the cloth without a care and let everyone see whatever they wanted. It's desecration to his own kind and it's sickening. It's disgusting. It makes me have to go to the bathroom but I can't go because if I leave this room I'll die at the hands of stupid muggles."

"Hey!" Hermione said defensively.

"No offense Hermione."

"Ron, my parents aren't going to kill you."

"But look at Harry's family. They're evil. Now that everyone knows they'll go around the neighborhood and tell all their neighbors to go against wizards and kill us all."

"My uncle is too fat and lazy to do anything. Plus everyone in the neighborhood is high on drugs or drunk. They have no one to pull together," Harry pointed out.

"There are other people who already know and hate us."

"Do you know anyone?" Hermione asked.

"No. But it's a possibility."

"Ron, trust me," Harry said calmly. "No one is going to kill you. Especially not any muggles. Okay?"

Ron nodded sadly and sat down on the floor. Hermione sat down with him and tried to comfort him while trying to hold back her smile. It was a little funny.

A few girls came up to them and Harry backed up. One smiled and spoke for all of them. "Um… we just wanted to say that if what they said in the papers is true and you're supposed to save us all, well we have great faith in you," she said sincerely.

"Um, thanks," Harry said. They all walked away.

Everyone was jolted from whatever they were doing by the second tumble erupting in the room. But it wasn't from the doors. Almost twenty-two people dropped out of nowhere onto the floor of the Hall in the next few seconds, some falling on top of each other, some more gracefully then others. The few that weren't trying to untangle themselves from the others walked gracefully over to Harry and bowed or curtsied to him.

"What are you all doing here?"

Ial spoke first in a vampirish Russian accent. "Well, Avin, Oye and I were feeding when we were all attacked by some muggles. So we had to run to Omi's where everyone was tonight. But the mob of muggles followed us so everyone else had to run to the safe house, which is now on fire. So we thought the only place to come was here. We didn't know where else to go."

"Did Fish, Tim, and Tom show up?"

"He and the other St. Brutis boys should be here soon I guess. The other students would find out what they were sooner or later."

"Right."

"Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore from across the hall. "Would you like to introduce your friends?"

"…I think there might be too many," he said thoughtfully, watching the rest of his followers push each other off themselves.

"Would you like to explain why they're here then?"

"Please sir," Omi said gently, standing before the crowd she had just untangled herself from. "We're witches and wizards but we were attacked, because of the outing, I guess. So the only safe place to come was here. We're so sorry to intrude on your… party," she finished, glancing around at the decorations.

"It was already intruded," Harry muttered.

"You may all stay I suppose."

"Thank you sir," she said with a curtsey.

As soon as the others had gotten untangled they came over to Harry as well with a bow or curtsey.

"Is Harry part of the British mob?" James whispered to Sirius.

Sirius just shrugged. "All made up of sixteen year olds?"

Five more people apparated into the hall.

"How many more people are we expecting gentlemen?" Dumbledore asked the five boys on their way over to Harry.

Fish looked up at the older man who had never met, confused. "Oh, um, out of our group we're the last. But you never know." He then headed quickly over to Harry and bowed. He grabbed a seat beside Harry and started a very quiet conversation with him.

Dumbledore tried to gain back the audience's attention but it wasn't working. He gave in. "Now that no one is in the mood for a party I would suggest everyone head to their houses. For those of you who don't go to this school you can follow whichever house you like. Mr. Potter, please come with me."

"What did I do?" he asked childishly.

"Mr. Potter."

"Fine."

Albus stepped off the podium and told everyone to start leaving and for the staff to follow him to his office.

The twenty-two people waited for Harry's orders. "Um, follow Pet to Gryffindor tower. Don't kill anyone."

"Yes, sir, St. Jimmy," they said, bowing and curtsying to him before turning to Bonnie. She kissed his cheek and led everyone away.

James quickly walked over to his son and led him away with everyone. "Harry, please don't tell me my son is part of the Mafia. We are in no way Italian you know?"

"It's not a Mafia. They're my minions: Fish, Tim, Tom, Bonnie, Ial, Oye, Avin, Toilet, Ma'am, Dig, Omi, Char, Hilton, Kim, Senate, Stan, Troy, Trick, Kim, Pim, Siphe, Haim, Hyp." He stopped and turned to his friends as they were walking out. "Fish!"

"Huh?"

"We're missing Hyp."

"Oh, yeah. He didn't come to the party. He's with his step-mother. They obviously weren't watching the news."

"Go get him."

"I don't want to see that―"

"Fish, go!" Harry ordered.

"Ah fine. Make sure someone waits for me to lead me to Gryffindor tower."

"I'll wait," Ginny offered.

Fish apparated and James tried to pull his son along but he wouldn't budge.

"I have to make sure they both come back."

They came back a few minutes later and Hyp looked alright. Harry went over to him. "You alright mate?"

"Fine St. Jimmy. Thanks for sending Fish."

"No problem. Follow Ginny to Gryffindor tower. Everyone's here." He bowed and followed Fish and Ginny out of the room.

Harry turned to his dad. "We can go."

"Are you sure it's not the mob? Why are they all bowing to you?"

"St. Jimmy. And they respect me. I'm the leader and its how they show their respect."

"It sounds like the Mafia."

"Fine. Call it what you like. But I'm not sending them into organized crime."

"So who else is in this group? Or had you finished your list."

"After Hyp are Phib, Zak, Jake, and Stan. There are twenty-two of my main people."

"Main people?"

"We have to go see Dumbledore, come on," he said pulling him along. "Hey mum," he greeted as they passed.

"Hello dear. You seemed very calm up on stage. Were you expecting that?"

"Actually I was expecting my date. So I was calm because it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be."

"Date for what?" Remus asked.

"The war. The man you, dad, had seen at church. Remember, he stopped to talk to me. He said 'I work for Voldemort but I'm not a death eater. I will deliver any messages from Voldemort to you because he's decided to take you as an enemy.' That's what he said, and that's why he was here. He said one of his messages would be the date he would come for me. This wasn't the one."

"Well you'll have to re-explain all that to the order," Sirius said.

"Why? It's none of their business."

They all looked at him.

"Fine I'll tell them. Hey mum, you look great for being eight months pregnant," he said.

"Thank you darling. I wish your father would be that nice."

"I try," James said, "but every time I try you slap me before I finish my sentence," he pouted.

"Are you two having marriage troubles? Because it's not the best way to bring a new child into the world and it's not best to fight in front of your paranoid son."

"We do this all the time and nothings happened yet. You were conceived during a fight," he smiled.

"That's disgusting. I'm going to turn off my ears now." He started walking faster then them and hummed loudly to himself.

James laughed quietly and leaned in to kiss his wife.

They all walked into Dumbledore's office; Harry was still humming to himself as he sat down in one of the chairs at a long table, in the center of the office. Half the order was already sitting down.

"Why is Harry humming?" Tonks asked as Remus sat down beside her.

"James told him he was conceived during a fight," Remus said.

"James!"

"What? I didn't say anything inappropriate. It's not like I said angry sex."

Harry started humming louder.

"What are you humming anyway?" Sirius asked.

"I'm Not Okay, by My Chemical Romance," he said before continuing to hum.

"Is that a band?"

"Yes."

"If Harry will stop humming I think we can start the meeting," Dumbledore said standing at the front of the table.

Harry went quiet and sighed.

"Thank you. Now if you would be so kind as to explain what the interruption was at the dance downstairs."

Harry stood looking bored and rolled his eyes. "Over Christmas break in France I met up with the man at church. He asked for a word so I listened. He told me that he worked for Voldemort but he was not a death eater. Voldemort wanted to speak with me but I had suddenly turned off our connection through our heads so he needed a different way to do it. And he only decided to talk to me now because he just now got the hint that I am a threat to him. After I stunned him when he captured Bonnie I guess he figured it could have been a worse curse to get hit with and it wasn't too hard. So now he's trying to make himself seem scarier and send me little messages with this messenger of his. I can send messages back to him if I'd like."

"And what did you say to him?" Moody asked.

"I'm not supposed to share that information with you," Harry said.

"Why the hell not?" Snape asked.

"Because it's between Tom and I. If I wanted you all to know what I put in the letter I would have told you when you asked. But instead I said I couldn't share that information with you. If you would like to take that as my answer, or not, is your own problem."

"Could you at least give us a hint of what you said back to him? You hadn't even read the letter from him before you gave the messenger your own," Dumbledore asked.

"Trust me. Even if I told you it wouldn't make sense to any of you."

"Could you try?"

Harry sighed. "Sure, why not? It's just a waste of our time. Does anyone have a piece of chalk?"

Dumbledore stood and handed him a piece and pointed to the board behind him. Harry turned and drew a perfect circle on the board and drew a perfect map of he world.

"Didn't you write him a letter?" Tonks asked.

"Do you want to understand what I wrote or not?"

Everyone stayed quiet.

"Alright." He started to make small dots in every continent everywhere. Everyone else sat confused as he wrote some comment beside the picture in a weird language. He set the chalk down. "Alright. This, obviously, is a map. And these dots stand for death."

"Death of what?" James asked.

"People. Muggle or wizard or vampire or squib or whatever. These are all the people, I've had sent away. Don't ask where because if I explain the whole thing will be ruined. They're not really dead either. See this is why I can't explain, it doesn't make any sense to any of you. And I can't explain it any easier."

"Why can't you just tell us?"

"I could but that would ruin this little non-existent bond between me and the Order. I'm not invited to your group meetings so you're not invited to mine. You can keep the picture if you want." He sat down in his seat.

"So anyway," Lily interrupted. "Onto things that involve us. Harry would you finish your statement on what Voldemort is talking to you about?"

"Thank you mum. Anyway, his first message came tonight and it happened to be that we were outed, which I wasn't expecting. And the next one, I don't know what its going to be. But the only one I'm really worried about is the date. Voldemort is going to be sending a day, time and place where he will start the war. Can I go now?"

"Is that all?"

"That's pretty much it," he said standing up. "And if anyone can translate the writing on the board, it gives a clear concise message on what the map stands for. Incase you were wondering. Sirius," he smiled. He then walked out of the room. They all looked at the board.

"Can anyone read that?" Dumbledore asked, as the words were in some strange calligraphy he didn't understand.

The only person to raise their hand was Sirius.

"You can read it?" James asked.

"Yep."

"When did you learn that?"

"While you were talking to the Prime Minister I was sitting in the hospital wing with Harry and Bonnie eating Tootsie Rolls and talking about them and learning a few things."

"So what does it say?"

Sirius smiled and stood up to head over to the board. He picked up the chalk and wrote down underneath the writing.

'All the dots stand for people in my army.'

Harry ran into the common room, before Sirius could tell everyone what the board said and come looking for him. As soon as he stepped in he stopped short. "What. ARE you doing?"

Everyone stopped. Toilet had already rearranged half the room because of his OCD and the others were just drinking and acting weird. They all looked at him and dropped whatever they were holding, in some people's case it was people. He walked over to Toilet and grabbed the book he was holding and gave it back to Hermione who seemed amused. "Sit." Twenty-two people simultaneously stopped and sat on the floor in their spot, even Bonnie who was acting funny in Hermionie, Ginny and Ron's opinion, now that she was packed into one small room with the group. "Good. Now, if these people aren't freaked out enough about muggles knowing about them or being burned at the stake, you have to go ahead and act weird to make it worse. I leave the room for one minute and you're all a pack of wild animals. Leave them all alone. Play with your swords but not on anyone but each other. Everyone clear?"

"Yes, sir, St. Jimmy."

"Good. And Toilet, try to restrain yourself please."

"I am trying."

"Someone didn't have his candy this morning," Omi giggled leaning her head on Ial as she sipped her butter beer.

"Oh shut up," he said sitting on the floor with them and lying his head in Bonnie's lap. "My father just told me I was conceived during one his and my mother's fights. I really didn't need to know."

"I'm sorry darling."

"So am I," he disgusted.

"Where's the tiara from Hell's Angel?" Hanna asked evilly, "did you win school dork awards."

"That doesn't even make sense. And for your information, I won Queen at our school dance." She stuck her tongue out at her and started stroking Harry's hair.

"I'm sure it was a joke. Haven't you ever seen Carrie?"

"Why you―"

"Pet," Harry stopped her holding onto her arms as he sat up. "Let's refrain from fighting right now. Everyone is trying to calm down."

"We shouldn't calm down. We should finish our party," one of the seventh year boys said. "I see some very fine looking girls who just got into Gryffindor," he said flirting with Ma'am.

"Go ahead. I don't rule you. Just don't trample the people on the floor."

"Can't we drink to?" Ma'am whined. The others followed suit and pouted.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fine. But if you all get drunk and then we're all attacked don't whine to me because I didn't ask you to fight," he said sending a knowing look at Ma'am. He crawled off the floor as someone started up some music from the wizard wireless and they started to pass out more beer and some fire whiskey. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fish, and Bonnie sat on the couches passing around a bottle of Fire Whiskey. Harry had a glass to spit it back into.

"So Harry," Ron said, "during the war. You're going to let Hermione and I join you, right?"

"If you want. I can't stop you."

"Dumbledore could. How are you planning to get past your parents and the Order?" Hermione asked.

"It won't be hard. They'll be busy trying to fight death eaters that aren't there and we'll all sneak out. I already have it all planned out. It's been in my head since I heard the prophecy. Though now that we're out it's being changed slightly because I have to reconfigure Voldemort's plan but it's pretty simple."

"Have you figured out how you're going to kill him?" Fish asked.

"No," he said sinking down in his seat with the whiskey bottle. They all looked at him with raised eyebrows. "What? I have other things to do. I haven't had time to think about it."

"Well you'll have time now. Maybe you won't have to go to classes anymore. What are they going to do with us?" Fish asked. "We go to a secure center every year. Or most of us. I don't think they would trust us alone in your school while the rest of you are in class."

"They don't know that. But I think you're right. We're probably not going back to class. If we're lucky, N.E.W.T's will be canceled. Goodie for the seventh years."

"And me. I might not have to take my O.W.L's," Ginny smiled.

"You know they're all going to make you take your tests. Or you'll just have to take them next year," Hermione pointed out.

"Or worse, over the summer," Ron groaned.

"Lucky we don't take any Owl's or Newt's this year," Harry said, taking a large sip of the whiskey and passing it to Bonnie as he spit it out.

"Hey St. Jimmy?" Hyp. asked, shooting off the floor and leaning over the couch beside his head.

"What?"

"Where are we all sleeping?"

"I don't know. If one of the professors doesn't come back to tell us, drink more until you pass out on the floor."

"Okay." He then left to go tell the others.

\-\

And, not that they meant to, everyone passed out on the floor. With all the news of that day, and the dance, and the drinking, it made it easy for everyone to pass out where they stood: Some on the floor, some in their chairs, on the stairs and the small group on the couch. Three Fire Whiskey bottles lye empty on the floor around them, Fish was still holding the last one with only a few drops still sitting at the bottom. It sat between two of his fingers as he lay passed out on his side on the couch spooning Ginny his face gently nestled in her hair as she used his limp arm as a pillow.

Ron and Hermione were curled up on a chair; Ron sleeping comfortably with his head rested against Hermione's neck as she rested on his head. His arms were wrapped around her waist as she sat on his lap.

Harry was spooning Bonnie on the floor in front of the fire with his arms wrapped around her center and their legs tangled up together. He lifted his chin and rested it on her shoulder in his sleep.

Head of house, Minerva, walked into the common room with James and Sirius, suspecting the students to still be awake and were going to tell them where they were sleeping. Surprising to them, the entire fifth, sixth and seventh years of the Gryffindor body were asleep across the floor.

"Must have been some party," Sirius laughed.

"Mr. Black," she said, perturbed. "The only ones not passed out are the first years. Who seemed to be the only ones smart enough to go up to their respective dormitories."

"That's because everyone knows if you give a first year liquor they won't know what to do with it. So they all got sent to bed early," James said, trailing off as McGonnagal looked at him. "What? I was in school six years ago. I should know."

"And I am sure it was your son's friends to bring in the liquor," she said walking around, stepping over her students.

"Hey, what gives you the right to say that?"

She took the liquor bottle from Fish's hand and showed him.

"Oh."

"Look at this. They're all a bunch of…"

"Don't say it Minnie, the world will come to an end," Sirius said.

"They are all _sleeping together_. It's disgusting how children live these days. _Look_ at little Ginny. Sleeping with Potter's alcoholic friend who is probably much more experienced then he divulges and a _year_ older then her."

"We'll just leave them here till morning and they can be punished then," James said. "With their large hangovers."

"Fine. But I am still utterly disgraced of my house."

\-\

The next morning…

Harry was the first to wake the next morning as a large voice rang over the common room and across the school.

"Wakey wakey everyone," said a cheery voice out of nowhere, sounding as if it were coming from a speaker.

"There are no speakers in the common rooms," Harry groaned, nestling back to sleep against Bonnie's shoulders as she tried to keep in her rem cycle.

"I said wakey, wakey everyone. All Slytherins, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws are to wake up and head to the Great Hall as soon as possible. Get up, get dressed, and come to the Great Hall amidst your hangovers with the soothing sound of my voice coming over the speakers because it's not going away until everyone is here."

"Oh," he sighed, "the marauders are awake. Goodie."

"To wake you all up Mr. Black and I have picked a special song for you all." They started singing and their horrid voices woke the common room with loud groans.

"Oye Potter. Do tell your father to shut up," someone groaned.

"He's not mine while we're at school. You go tell him." He leaned over Bonnie and kissed her cheek. "Come pet. Must get up. We have a P.A. system now. Isn't it wonderful?"

"No," she groaned.

"Come on darling," he said, climbing over her and standing on the floor. "We must all wake up or they will only continue."

"Wasn't that a beautiful song everyone?" Sirius asked over the speaker. "We'll think of another but in the meantime, everyone wakey, wakey. Eggs are baking along with the bacon, ham, the toast is toasting and then everyone will have their chance to beat up Malfoy and the other Slytherins. Yay!"

Everyone was getting up more easily now. Bonnie sighed and got up as well, figuring beating up Malfoy was better then sleeping. Harry smiled at her still tired face. "Morning." He leaned down to capture her lips as she still sat on the floor.

"Morning." She stood up and they began to wake their friends. Ginny wouldn't look at Fish now that she woke up, embarrassed, in Fish's arms in front of her brother, who was too hung over to really care.

"Come on my darling little delinquents," Harry said, wading through the sea of his minions asleep on the floor, who he knew could sleep through anything. "It's time to get dressed. Hell's Angel will pass out a hang over potion if you like. First come first serve," he finished and everyone started getting up quickly. "Ial, Avin, and Oye!, you can go up to the dorms, I'll close the blinds for you," he said, patting their shoulders to wake them up. They followed him upstairs to his dorm room and he came back down.

"I only have two hands so you mine-as-well get dressed first," Bonnie said to everyone, sitting over her cauldron already in a new outfit. She didn't bother to put on her uniform just like no one else did. She put on her red Dock Martins, black skirt with a red skirt underneath and a black T-shirt with tiny red skulls up and down it.

They all tore off their clothes only to have a new outfit underneath.

"Where did you all learn to do that?" Ron asked. They all pointed to Harry.

"Shush," was all Harry had to say as he did the same thing.

"When did you learn to do that?"

"Don't worry Ron. I'll train you," Harry smiled deviously. Ron looked over Harry's shoulder at the others who were shaking their heads vigorously.

"I'll think about it."

"Fine."

Everyone went over to Bonnie and grabbed a hangover potion, even Ron and Hermione. People were already starting to head out and to the Great Hall. Bonnie downed a glass herself and went over to Harry. He looked back at his group that was waiting to follow him.

"Don't follow me like that. People will think we're mental. You all know your own way to the Great Hall," he said leaving the common room. They all followed anyway, down into the Great Hall where practically everyone was already gathered. Sirius, Remus and James were standing at the center of Gryffindor table still talking loudly with their wand against their neck. "And here are the new arrivals. Please take a seat anywhere you like. All tables have been extended for you."

Harry let go of Bonnie's hand and walked quickly to the table and climbed onto it beside his dad. James pulled his wand away to speak normally.

"Hello," he said cheerily.

"Yeah, hi. Look dad, it's been a while now and it's not that I'm dependent on it anymore. I've learned to control my magic. Can I please have my wand back?"

"No."

"What? Why the bloody hell not?"

"Because, I like to watch you squirm."

"Oh come on. I'll sick mother on you," he threatened.

"Don't threaten me with your mother. She's eight months pregnant."

"But you know I can."

"You can't get to the house."

"Doesn't matter. She's at the heads tables."

"Why do you have to notice everything once you walk into a room?"

"Something you taught me," he smiled.

James reached into his robes and handed Harry his wand. "Happy?"

"Very. I just may be nice to you," he said.

James groaned not believing him but knowing it was a joke. He motioned for Harry to get off the table.

He got down and sat down beside Bonnie. His small army was standing in front of their seats as everyone watched them. "Sit," he said, gathering food onto his plate. They all did so in unison.

"When did Potter stop being a dork?" Dean asked.

"I was not a dork. I was depressed," he said, hearing him from across the table.

"Before you got here. Shouldn't it have been after?"

"No. It was before and during. And I was not a dork."

"Of course Potter."

"You're not a dork darling," Bonnie said kissing his cheek.

"No I'm not. Because dorks don't get the girl."

"But you got her when you stopped being a dork," Dean pointed out. Harry chucked a hard-boiled egg at his head with perfect aim. Everyone quickly ate their breakfast and drank their pumpkin juice. Harry's little minions were eating like they had never eaten food in their lifetime. When breakfast was over Dumbledore stood to make an announcement.

"Now it seems that we may have forgotten to tell the others where they would be sleeping so you all found places on the floor of Gryffindor Common Room. We've decided that we could split you all up into different houses to sleep."

"Um, Professor Dumbledore," Harry said, standing up, attracting the attention of the room. "I know it's your school and all but I can't permit them to be placed in separate houses. They're all fine sleeping on the floor."

"Harry, that's rude," Lily reprimanded.

"Well they are. Besides, it's probably not best to separate them. Some of them won't tolerate it."

"Tolerate it? If they would all like to sleep on the floor of the common room and its fine with the rest of the Gryffindors, I can't stop you."

"We don't mind," one of the seventh years said. Everyone else agreed.

"Alright then. On other news, in light of things that have happened yesterday, I would like to inform everyone that class schedules have not changed. Everyone, aside from our new guests of course, are to wear their uniforms as usual and go to all regular classes." Everyone in the hall groaned. "I know you were all hoping that because the muggles know about us we would just sit around and wait for the war to be over, but we must show that this is not going to bring us down or change the way we live by going about our normal business. Now I expect all of my students to be in uniform and in their classes by time the bell rings. You're dismissed."

Everyone slumped toward the door in a now depressed mood having been hoping on getting off without work because of the war. So they all headed back to the common rooms to change and pack up their things for class, whining about homework and their hangover.

In the Gryffindor tower, while everyone was beginning to head out of their dorms to head to class, they found Harry and his group of minions had changed around the common room within seconds. It was all lighted with what seemed more then just a fire, lit with invisible lighting. The couches had been moved away from the fireplace and the opening near it was much larger so that they could all sit in a circle facing each other. They were already starting to work on some sort of project. Dean walked over to him with Seamus and their girlfriends.

"What are you all doing?" Dean asked.

"Working," Harry said distractedly, flipping over a large map of Africa and sticking his pencil in his mouth.

"You're not going to class?"

"No," he said, again distracted by his papers.

"Cool. But, if I don't go, I'll get in trouble. So see you at lunch."

Ron, Hermione and Ginny came down a little while later. "Harry, why aren't you getting dressed?" Hermione asked.

"We're not going to class. Sit down," he said, tugging at her robes.

"Harry, we can't skip classes," she said, shocked while Ginny and Ron willingly sat down. "You guys, this is wrong. We're supposed to be in class."

"Hermione, the teachers don't want to be there. We don't want to be there and Harry obviously has better things to do with us," Ron said, taking the papers Harry handed him and handing them to Fish who wrote something on them and sent them back to Harry with an extra sheet of paper.

Hermione sighed and threw her bag on the couch and sat down beside Ginny. Apparently, Harry was sending out orders to his followers around the world, giving them directions on where they should be when he sent off the signal. First they had to set up the coordinates though, which Ron seemed able to help a lot with, giving out good ideas when they got stuck. He seemed terribly excited when Harry gave him praise and Hermione suddenly noticed how Ron seemed to look at Harry the same way Fish did. With the hope of his praise for doing something good, looking for his acceptance and respect. Harry seemed to send off some kind of aura that made everyone look at him like he was Christ and they were his followers. And when Ron got praise, Fish looked a little jealous and tried to drive the attention back to himself by pointing out something else for their coordinate plans. They were fighting for him in a very silent battle. The only one who didn't seem to want his attention was Bonnie, most likely because she knew she had more love from Harry then the others and no one seemed to disrespect her by taking Harry's attention away from her when she spoke to him. Treating her like second in command. Hermione was just slightly entertained with the silent battle.

Harry now had Nam sitting on his knee helping him signature his name to a whole bunch of notes that they had made out to the members assigning them their positions. It took all till lunch where they all took a break to head to eat. Hermione still watched in amusement as Harry and his group sat down simultaneously and started shoveling food in. Ron even had experience in this part. Hermione pointed this out to Ginny and they both enjoyed the silent entertainment. The only one who didn't shovel was Bonnie, who apparently didn't have to eat as fast to finish off her plate in the same amount of time. (Neither could figure out how she did that.) Then Harry stood, stopping everyone's eating and moved them out of the Great Hall while some of the students were still heading in.

As the week went on Hermione and Ginny found them-selves pulled in by Harry's superior heroic nature. He pulled people in with his voice of wisdom and thought. When he began to speak about war he was so passionate about it you couldn't help but listen to every bloody word he had to say. Hermione had mentioned how he was like Joan of Arc but Harry's reply came through the pen that sat in his mouth and she didn't ask him to repeat his reply because he seemed overly occupied with his work.

Over that week they gained more and more guests. Wizard's families who were attacked by muggles because they lived on muggle streets or by Voldemort because they lived on wizarding streets. The Weasley family was there, excluding Mr. Weasley and Percy because they were at the Ministry and Fred and George because they were trying to hold down the fort at their joke shop before Voldemort came for Hogsmeade. Luckily, places in muggles areas that were hidden, like St. Mungos and the Three Broomsticks, had not been noticed as long as their wards were holding up. But it was only a matter of time. Meanwhile, Bonnie's father, Minister of the muggle world, was trying to create peace while the Minister of Magic tried to help but only made it worse, trying to tell the muggles that the Wizarding community was, along with the Ministry workers, all hard at work on the problem. But it only made them more furious and he was almost mobbed. And when his bodyguards used magic to get the raging crowd away from the Minister the world went rampant.

In Bulguria it was the same as well as in France where they were discussing an old-fashioned witch hunt and burning.

Nothing changed in the Americas either. They had gone stark-raving mad all before their president knew what was going on.

Canada seemed to have few angry muggles, but when they found out there was a community of "them witches," as they say down south in the states, right across their border they seemed to stay quite calm.

There were few magically inclined people living in the U.S. along with South America and Mexico, most of them had gone to school in a different country before returning home. South America had found a large group of wizards among them, but it turned to the worst and they all traveled for safety to England, flocking to schools and hospitals.

France was bad, but England was worse. English muggles were known to be great, friendly people but had taken the time to search out a guillotine and set up a gallows to burn, hang and behead their magically inclined countrymen. Britain had the largest population of wizards and witches in the world and the fact that Voldemort was born and raised there didn't make the muggle community feel any better toward the Wizarding community or at all safe with their majority.

There was no safe place. There were rioting, murdering, house burning: muggles or Voldemort to deal with. So where do you go when the world is in a frenzy? Who will everyone listen to?

"Come on my little warriors! Faster, faster!" Harry cried, manically as they ran through the corridors. "Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, ruuuun, run," Harry sang as he ran backwards facing his group as easily as they ran forward toward him. "Hey Jake!" Harry yelled, "go to the library and give this to Madam Pince. Don't leave till she gives you that book," Harry said, holding out a paper to him. "And don't stop running! Run in place if you have to!"

Girls from every house and every year sat along the sidelines, giggling to each other, while watching the boys of Harry's army run with their shirts off, including Harry, who was a shoe-in to win Bachelor of the Year after he pulled off his shirt and showed off his tattoo. Bonnie wasn't very happy about the girls staring but she was too busy with her workout to yell at them. "Come on people, you're slowing down. Hey Fish! Whack Hanna with my pole, she's getting tired," Harry said, about to throw Fish his stick even though Fish knew he would fall to the floor if he caught it.

"No I'm fine," Hanna said quickly while she sped up again.

Harry smiled and pulled his pole back to him. He turned to the girls in the hall watching. "Don't you girls having anything better to do" Harry yelled, seeing them looking relaxed like they were watching T.V. while sipping their cold pumpkin juice from their goblets.

"No. We thought about raiding your dorm while you were out but your snake tried to bite us," the girl yelled as Harry continued to run.

"Aww, Prose is so good to me," Harry smiled.

Jake ran back with the book and gave it to Harry who looked it over. "This isn't what I asked for," he said, as Jake ran beside him.

"She says it has the same things in it."

"I need the signatures from the book though."

"She said you need a signed permission from a professor for a book in the restricted section."

"Well go find my father—"

"She said you can't use your father because she knows he'll let you get anything you want as long as you make the same little pout you make for her," Jake laughed.

Harry sighed, "Alright. Everyone walk and take your pulse," Harry yelled as everyone stopped running and slowed into a paced walk while holding their wrist. Harry ran down the hallways to his father's office. He knocked then put his hand to his wrist and counted his pulse.

The door opened and his mother stood in the doorway with a smile. "Working hard darling?" she giggled.

"Yeah, is dad here?"

"He's inside with the two boobs," she said, putting her hand on her stomach as she stepped out of the doorway for him. He walked in to see his dad sitting on his desk knocking his feet against the front as Sirius and Remus paced the floor.

"Why don't you just name it Harry two? You won't even get the two mixed up. Harry one and Harry two. Then you won't have as many names to remember," Sirius offered.

"I'm not naming him the same as my first son Sirius. I'll just name him James the second like I wanted to name Harry. And I do get to name him Lily because–" He looked over at her to see Harry.

"You're having a boy? You said you didn't know what it was."

"We don't. We're thinking of names for both. If it's a girl her name is Fire Whiskey," James joked.

"Ha ha. So um, I need to ask a favor. I need you to go to Madam Pince and get this book for me. She won't let me get it because I can forge your signature and because she knows you'll give me anything I want so you have to tell her it's for you."

"I don't give you anything you want," James lied, knowing that he would.

Sirius and Remus laughed.

"Fine. I'll get you your book. But only because you're working very hard."

Harry smiled, successfully. "Thanks. Oh, and don't name my brother Harry two. It might not be confusing to you but it will be for us. And not James either because God only knows who'll be calling me St. Jimmy by then and Jimmy comes from James and that'll be confusing so… go for daughters." He then headed out of the room.

Lily smiled happily. "He doesn't sound too unhappy about the baby anymore? Did you notice? He's taking an interest."

"He could just be–"

"He's taking an interest James," Lily demanded.

"Yes darling," James said, as Sirius and Remus snickered.


	25. Why does everyone stare at me like

AN: Thank you everyone for your nice reviews. I'm glad you like the last chapter and I hope you like this one to. ENJOY! :)

24

"Why does [everyone] stare at me like [they're] hungry?"

Harry was lying asleep on the floor by the fire in his father's office, lying over his book that Bonnie had bought him for Christmas. He found out from some clever research that Da Vinci happened to be a very clever wizard. The symbol wizards used to identify each other through their books was imprinted on Da Vinci's book, a bit smeared but still visible.

He had spent some days in his father's office while his army was out working on spells with some teachers Harry had asked to help out. So he stayed here where it was quiet to work on finding a spell to kill Voldemort. It was so much quieter in here now that his father, Sirius, Remus, and his mother were always out greeting new families who came to Hogwarts every day.

James came out of his bedroom quarters and yawned as he stepped out thinking of heading down to the kitchens for a midnight snack when he caught sight of his son still by the fire reading. "Harry shouldn't you–" At a closer look he noticed that Harry was asleep on his book, not reading it. He kneeled on the floor beside his son. The boy hadn't slept in two weeks; it was obvious he would fall asleep in front of a fire while reading. He gently stroked his hair back. "Come on Harry. Wake up. You've gotta get to your dorms to sleep."

"I'm not sleeping," Harry yawned, snuggling into his arm. "I'm working."

James smirked down at his sleeping son and gently picked him up. "Come on. You're lucky I asked for an extra room." He walked into the other room he had asked for just in case and gently set Harry down in the bed. He swept Harry's bangs out of his eyes and kissed his hair before leaving to go back to bed.

\-\

"Aww, he's so cute when he's sleeping," Bonnie said, kneeling beside Harry's bed. It was 1o:oo in the morning and Harry still hadn't woken up, which worried the others because Harry never slept in or forgot to give them their orders in the morning. So Bonnie offered to go look for him. James had told her he was still in his office and took her to Harry.

"Must we really wake him up?" James asked, knowing Lily wouldn't be very happy about it either. "He hasn't slept in two weeks. He needs rest."

"Yes, but he'll reject me from the army if I knew he was sleeping this long and didn't wake him up," Bonnie said. She pulled a Tootsie Roll out of her bag, unwrapped it, the crinkling paper making Harry shift. And the airy scent of the chocolate surrounded Harry and he shifted more and groaned in his sleep. "Harry," Bonnie sang, "wakie, wakieeeee."

"I'm awake," he groaned.

"Uh, uh, darling. You're still sleeping. Your eyes are closed."

"No, I'm reading. Go get me my book, I'll read it from behind my eye lids," he said, snuggling back into the pillow.

"Come on dear. You know the boys are helpless if you don't tell them what to do."

"So go tell them to run a lap around the school." He opened his eyes to see her still sitting there waiting for him to get up. "Fine. Go get Fish to get me some coffee."

"Alright," she said. She gave him a light kiss before standing up and leaving the room.

Harry sat up in bed and climbed off of it tiredly. He looked up at his father. "You let me fall asleep."

"I'm sorry. You were already asleep when I found you. And I couldn't bear to wake you. I'm a worried parent. When you haven't slept in a week and then finally give in to sleep, I have to leave you. It's my job."

"It's alright. It's just that now I'm drowsy." He stood off his bed and grabbed the Tootsie Roll Bonnie had left for him. "I have to go visit my minions now." James smiled. "Oh, by the way; how is mum? She's getting close to due date now isn't she?"

"Yeah, bad timing isn't it?"

"No. I'll make sure everything goes fine." Harry smiled and then left the office. He headed down the hall and was quickly beside Fish who handed him his cup of coffee. A lot of things had changed at school. Dorms were not dorms, unless you were the packs of Slytherins. They refused to share. Gryffindor tower had turned into Harry's training, planning, and sleeping grounds for his army and everyone else moved out. Having plainly outed himself, without making any public statement, Harry had basically admitted to everyone that he was running the show and the Daily Prophet was as close to the truth right now as the public was going to find in looking for an answer. So they all gave him space to run his plans and do what he needed. There had been more rooms spread out among the school and classrooms had been switched into dorms for visitors. Hogwarts had become the holding grounds for witches and wizards who couldn't go back home, or were afraid to go back home. Everyone was here who didn't live on a wizard street with barriers around their homes. It was surprising how many there were.

Any purebloods who were on the light side (ex: Potters, Weasleys…) were seeing Madam Pomfrey for calming draughts when they came in because they were the most freaked about the fact that they had been outed to the muggle public. Their secret revealed on a muggle television no less, which Draco claimed had no class toward wizard kind at all, and he actually declared that Voldemort was an idiot, which everyone caught but no one commented on.

Downstairs, in the Great Hall, all had grown larger. Dumbledore had spread the Great Hall and stretched it into an even greater one so as to fit more tables to fit more people. And the poor house elves were working non-stop. Though neither Hermione nor anyone who wanted to could complain since it was the only thing keeping things normal and standardized.

Harry and some other members of his army were wandering down the hall while Harry thought up in his head their training plan for the day. They had already scanned out the plan to no matter what Voldemort ended up doing, Harry even insisted on making plans on things the others thought would never happen no matter how strange this war was going. They had studied spells none had ever heard of; most way beyond seventh year, pre-auror or auror training, and some others that wouldn't hurt to practice on. They had went shopping to gather some extra weapons, military gear, and anything they saw that may help them out or caught their eye; all coming out of Harry's pocket money that he never used. "Everything turns out to have reason in the end," Harry had said.

"Harry!" a girl screamed from down the hall. They all turned to see Fish's sister running down the hall toward them. Long blond hair behind her flowing down to her shoulder in a pony-tail and deep blue eyes wearing jeans and a band T-shirt. Since she knew Harry and his fear of hugging she grabbed her brother instead and grabbed him into her arms showing just how much shorter he was compared to his model-tall sister.

"Sis, get off me. Let go," Fish groaned, pushing her off.

"Why are you so happy?" Harry asked her.

"Because, we've all been outed."

"We knew that, when did you find out?" Fish asked his sister as though she were the younger sibling.

She gave him a glare before turning back to Harry. "I knew. And I'm happy because… well look." She grabbed someone behind her and pulled her before them all. The group took a step back. "No, don't. She's decided she's okay with it."

Ann, her muggle friend, was such a dedicated friend to her that she would stay with Elizabeth (Fish's sister) even though there was a huge war going on between wizards and muggles and wizards against wizards.

"Well you get a hug," Harry smiled. He pulled Ann, who was shorter then him, into a small hug and she smiled at him.

"Why don't I get a hug?" Elizabeth asked.

"Because you're not giving into the community while the rest of your human counterparts are trying to kill us."

Elizabeth sulked quietly for a moment. "Well Ann and I have to go. We're going to go eat. I've been wandering the streets trying not to get us killed for two days. Her parents wouldn't let me into the house. Oh and Fish," she said, turning to her brother, "our parents have gone ballistic and sober. They've joined the dark side with Harry's aunt and uncle." She looked up at Harry. "Sorry, but they never liked you."

Harry just shrugged.

"So there's no going back there till the wars over. Maybe not after either, they obviously hate us. But I'll get an apartment and you can live with me. Kay bro?"

"Yeah."

"Well we're going to go eat. Have to build up strength to keep our sights high. Come on Ann," she said, taking her friend's hand as they skipped down the stairs toward the Great Hall.

Harry looked to Fish. "You alright?"

"Yeah. It was bound to happen. My parents never liked us when they were sober. So make up your mind on what we're doing today."

"Um. I don't know. We could run more laps if you're all that bored."

Everyone groaned.

"Oh _come on._ You all love your laps."

"When we didn't run them as often and as long," someone complained.

"Well if no one can think of anything better—"

"Harry!"

"Hasn't anyone ever heard of a nice calm greeting?" Harry asked himself before turning around. It was an odd site. The Prime Minister was walking quickly toward him, his own bodyguard cronies not leaving his side even while heading into a wizard school where they were afraid someone would attack them. They looked scared and helpless but they were still there. And then the Minister of Magic was walking as quick paced as he could behind him followed by slow body guards with quick wands. "Hello sir," Harry greeted back calmly, once he was close enough.

"Harry my boy," he said, almost out of breath. "I would have got here sooner but your Minister can't apparate into Hogwarts just outside it. I must apologize to Tim and Tom for criticizing their apparating." He turned to them. "It was wonderful boys." They both nodded and he turned back to Harry. "Might I have a word with you?"

"Go ahead."

The Minister looked around him at all the watchful eyes who were watching him, even though he was Bonnie's father, as though he were going to attack their leader.

"Daddy," Bonnie spoke up. "Don't you have better things to do at the moment? We are at war. Did you forget?"

"No. That's why I wanted to speak to Harry. Could I speak to you alone Harry?" he asked.

"Oh come out with it Price, we don't have time for this," Scrimmaguer said angrily.

"If you want to handle the ticking time bomb go right ahead. No reference to you Harry," he said, turning to him, then back to the Minister.

"Did you want something, from me, sirs," Harry asked.

"Yes," Scrimmaguer said, shoving Price out of the way to face Harry. "You see, Price here has it in his head that everyone has to listen to you because they want to. So he wants you to stand in front of the world and make a statement to the public for him."

"For me? You're the one who made everything worse," Cameron said, angrily. "Using magic against them to protect yourself after you insulted their intelligence. Real way to gain their respect. How did you win votes again?"

"Look Price, this is no time to fight about this."

"No it isn't," Harry interrupted. They both quieted, looking like two ashamed children who had been bickering over a toy. "Now what's going on?"

Cameron took the lead. "Well you know how all the muggles are going on riots and what not? Well I've been trying to get them all to calm down, sending out the army and everything to do whatever they have to, to stop the madness and nothing is helping. People are rebelling against our own army calling them wizards. So we thought that maybe you could help. Because you know, and you can't deny it, when you get in front of a crowd, everyone shuts their mouths and listens to every word you say. And it doesn't really matter if they actually listen to you or not just if they're calm for about fifteen minutes so we can work out a plan or keep them calm for that long at least."

"You think the muggle population is going to listen to a 16-year old _wizard_?"

"I know you don't believe what everyone else sees but please," Cameron said.

"You have to at least try," Scrimmaguer added.

"I don't _have_ to do anything," Harry said, liking Scrimmaguer less every second.

"Okay. Could you please try?" Cameron asked.

Harry thought about it for a second. If he was going to work on something today it mine-as-well be calming muggles. He sighed. "Fine. Just let me get myself prepped for a public appearance." He looked himself over. "Okay, let's go. Fish, Ron, come with me. Bonnie, give everyone something to do."

"Like what? You couldn't even think of something."

"I don't care. Make them run laps. Go play Quidditch." He kissed Bonnie's cheek and then followed the Prime Minister down the corridor with Fish and Ron walking behind him like bodyguards. The Minister of Magic didn't look very happy but he turned to the others. "It'll be all over the news if you can find some way to watch it," he said before turning to leave with his own bodyguards that he didn't need here because nobody in the hallway at the moment even liked him.

\-\

They were all moved into a limo, bodyguards in a separate one, besides Ron and Fish who Harry insisted sit with him, even though the Minister of Magic told him guards stayed in the other limo so they could talk.

"They're not guards," Harry said. "They're my best friends. They're staying." And whatever Harry wants, Harry gets. He looked up at Cameron. "What am I supposed to say to everyone? Why do I have the power to make everyone shut up instead of someone else?"

Cameron leaned forward in his seat. "I don't think you understand yet, but you draw people to you. They can't help but follow you.

"Understand Harry, they follow out of their own free will. Not obligation, fame, or fear, like Voldemort inspires. You have to understand that people make their own decisions. You do not control their actions, as they do not control yours.

"For one so touched by death and pain, you have a remarkable amount of love to give and you inspire the same in others for yourself. It is a gift both rare and powerful, but I think you are one who can use it wisely."

"That was a beautiful speech sir, why don't you talk to the people?"

"For the reasons I have just explained to you," he said, leaning back in his seat.

"I've never made a speech to a huge group of people."

"What about Sober Day when you start off the dinner," Fish said, "or that time you had to talk about your painting when it was sent to that museum, or that time—"

"Okay, but that wasn't the entire population of the planet of both muggle and witch and anything else that inhabits the earth and is few feet from a television, radio, broadcast system or the place I'm making my speech."

"You'll do fine Harry. Just make sure to speak clearly and not get too pale or you might turn translucent."

"Ha ha, why didn't I take Bonnie with me?"

"Because she wouldn't be able to comfort you with her father in the car," Fish smiled. Harry smacked his forehead and looked away from Cameron. He slowly moved to the back of the limo to think over what he was going to say.

\-\

"Alright now Harry, everyone down there is mobbing so you might have to yell to get their attention at first. Reporters might be the only ones paying attention at first," Cameron said.

Harry nodded. In front of the building outside, was a large platform heading out to the mobbing muggles in the center of London in the same place Voldemort had outed wizard kind over the television. He plucked up all his Gryffindor courage and his "natural warrior strength" that came to him with his powers in will of the prophecy, that he had often used in those such places Fish had mentioned before; and he headed forward toward the roaring crowd he would have to tame into silence just so they would hear the things he was about to say. And they might not even want to hear it.

He stepped up to the podium and the first thing he heard among the crowd was the untamed uproar. Harry was supposed to talk now. Fish pushed him forward a little and he became conscious again. "Wow," he mumbled to himself, but it came out quietly through the microphone to all the listeners below him. At the soft, wondrous tone of his voice the hushed roar of the mass below faded slowly to a curious silence. They were all staring up at him, waiting for something.

\-\

Bonnie and the others made their way into the Great Hall where everyone had gathered for lunch. The whole hall was loud while talking over lunch having no idea what was going on. Bonnie stepped onto the Gryffindor table and yelled "SHUT UP!" till everyone was silent and staring at her. "We all have to watch the television at the moment. Harry's making a statement to everyone." Tim pressed a button on his cell phone and directed it to the center of the room and everyone turned to watch as Harry came up on a large projected screen. All the crowd watching to hear what he had to say to them.

\-\

"For centuries, since the beginning of man kind, there has been a separation of two species of human beings: Muggles and Wizards. Not anymore.

"If you need someone to tell you, a lot of you have no right to be acting like this. Most of you, have been living next to wizards and witches or squibs for most of your lives. They've been your favorite neighbors or your best friend. Just because we happen to carry a wand doesn't make us any different from you. You all just make it such a big deal that it becomes one. We've all been living on the same streets, same cities, same towns, same continents and some of us in the same houses; for millions of years. Beating each other up and trying to murder one-another because you _think_ they're a wizard is stupid. It's like coming out from under a rock and saying "oh my god, war is now part of human nature." Just because we're able to do magic doesn't make you any different from the people around you beside that fact. I should know. I lived with muggles, my relatives; till I was eleven years old and they thought I was a piece of shit for being what _I_ was. But what do they know? To them, and to you, I'm a freak. But to everyone in the wizarding world, I'm a national icon. I'm supposed to save the world from this very war no doubt. My job is to, what many in my world have taken to know as truth for a while now, to defeat the very man who made this whole mess a colossal outburst of hate. I'm supposed to save you people while you're all claiming your hate for my people. Well it's no huge surprise seeing as these things always seem to happen. But you should hardly hate us. Sure we've been keeping this huge secret but it's not like we did anything to you. We've never used our power against you, until now. But that wasn't us. The man you saw killing people in the street not but a month ago was an evil, not even human, wizard who is a threat to us as well as you.

He's just trying to be cocky and take over the world. Show how much more powerful he is than me. It's happened before but it's not on a record that anyone can read. He wants to show how powerful he is to everyone so you lose faith and so that you can distract us… or me. But he's not all that powerful to tell the truth. He's a coward. He let himself be known like he did because he feeds off the way you all react: In fear, and apprehension. He's just watching us all as everyone falls apart and having a big old laugh (if he can do that). This is like a big joke to him because it comes at no cost to him. It's his large inside joke with his cronies that they'll laugh at together as it results in the death of half the world and then most likely the enslavement of the other.

And even though I'm only sixteen, and I'm a wizard, I've been a strange child since before I realized it. I've been training to fight this man since I was five years old. At first I wanted to take over the world so I could give it over to the people but then I just wanted to save it. So if you all want to murder each other, act like animals, and be stupid; you're just making his job easier and mine harder. I have to save you all from this one guy who has the power to kill you all easily. I don't have the time to save you from yourselves to.

"So go right ahead. But if you would like the chance at living, maybe letting my friends and I live and maybe making this war a little easier on me, I suggest you stop fighting and maybe… head to a church or a Synagogue or wherever you go according to your religion. Just stay out of my way. Or you could go ahead and help Voldemort and inadvertently get yourself killed. All government officials should contact the Prime Minister if they have questions.

"So as my closing statement I must say, if you want to live, you'll all learn to get along. Thank you."

He walked away from the podium and everyone was completely silent as he walked away back to Ron and Fish and sat down. "Please kill me now. I just ruined my reputation in front of the whole world. This is why I stay silent. My big speechy mouth and I had to keep talking. I should have told them to stop fighting and then walked away."

"Harry you did fine. It's still quiet. That's got to mean something."

"Oh yeah." Harry put his face in his hands and slouched over his knees.

Cameron went back out to the podium and then came back out with a smile and kneeled down before Harry so they were eye to eye. "Harry, you have nothing to worry about. I just went out there and they don't seem upset. In fact, they're all bowing."

Harry's head snapped up to look at him. "Bowing?"

"Yep. If you were down there they would probably kiss your robes. Told you. Now, I have to go talk politics with some politicians that are sure to be on their way. I'll have a car ready for you to take you back to Hogwarts. Unless you'd rather apparate."

"We'll just apparate. But sir…" Cameron stopped and waited. "If you have a minute, I need to speak with you. It won't take long."

Cameron thought for a second but nodded. "I still have time before they come. They have to take planes. We'll talk in my office."

They walked through the Ministry, passing all the high ranks of the government in Britain. Everyone was staring at Harry as he passed and then got down on their knees to bow to him. Harry looked around confused.

He leaned back slightly to Fish. "Why are they all bowing to me?"

"Because you're going to save them. They're showing their respect."

Harry nodded to them in thanks until they got to Cameron's office. He walked in and opened the door for Harry. Harry turned to Ron and Fish who were following him in. "You both stay out here and wait. I won't take long."

They both sighed and sat down on the floor in the hallway.

Harry then followed Cameron into the office. "Take a seat Harry," Cameron said, sitting behind his desk. Harry sat down on the other side. His office looked a bit like it did at home, only slightly larger, definitely messier and his desk held multiple photos of his daughter and his wife. Harry picked up one of the photos of Bonnie when she was seven years old at her first Communion, wearing her white dress that was designed in the fashion of a wedding dress. _What a coincidence,_ Harry thought. She was being held up by her father, both with huge smiles on their faces and her mother standing beside them with a large smile.

"Harry?" Harry looked up at Cameron. "You wanted to speak to me about something?" he asked, taking the picture from him.

"Right. Well sir, you know how much I love Bonnie don't you?" Cameron nodded. "Well, I do love her. Very much. When we were eleven and you had taken her away from me, I felt like I had almost died. You know that she was always more then a friend to me. And always more then just an army member. She was my best friend; she is my best friend. I could never go on without her."

"What are you getting to here Harry? Or St. Jimmy."

"Harry's fine actually. Sir, what I'm getting at is that I deeply love your daughter. And I would do anything for her and would never let any harm come to her, you know that. I want; as I'm sure you do, for only her happiness. So what I would like to ask you, sir, is if you would give me your blessing to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage."

Cameron sat stunned for a second. "Harry, you're sixteen."

"I know," he said, as though this had occurred to him to. "But I don't plan to purpose until after the war and by time that happens we'll be near our seventeenth birthdays so the wedding won't be util after we're actually of age."

Cameron nodded. "How long have you been thinking this over?"

"Not long actually. I guess I always knew I wanted to marry her…" he trailed off.

"Harry, I know you love her, and I know she loves you to. She has since she met you. She'd kill me for telling you but on the day of her communion, I caught her up in her bedroom, dancing in her dress talking about her future wedding with the great St. Jimmy. And when I told her we were leaving she was so upset. She told me that if we could only wait a few more days you would finally realize how much you loved her. She was so jealous of all those girls you used to date when you were little. She always told me, "It's not serious with them. We're only 7… 8…9…10…11." She'd always wanted so much more then to be St. Jimmy's "pet," as you called her, right?" Harry smiled. "She's always loved you Harry: Whether you were St. Jimmy, her St. Jimmy, or Harry; whether you lived a million miles away or right down the street or even in the room next door or sitting in the hospital without your aunt and uncle. She loved you with and without your faults." Harry lowered his head. "Which is why… I'm going to give you my blessing, to marry my daughter."

Harry looked up at him. "You are?"

"Yes I am. Because I know you, and I know you can and will take care of her. Even if you didn't have money I know you would find a way to make sure she had everything she wanted in life. And I know what she wants most in life is you. But you better know that I'll be making sure that you take really good care of my daughter."

"Yes sir. Of course."

"Do you have a ring?"

"I plan to go buy it. There shouldn't be too many problems now that everyone likes me."

Cameron smiled. He stood up, indicating the end of the meeting. "I'm sure you and Bonnie will be very happy together. You'll be one very rich couple, and very famous as well."

Harry laughed slightly. "Thank you so much sir. I promise to keep her happy for as long as I live."

"I trust you will. I look forward to you being my son-in-law."

"I'm sure my father's looking forward to it as well," Harry smiled. Cameron laughed. "Don't tell him I said that."

"I won't. Now go shopping or finish training or whatever and leave me to the blood sucking politicians who will in no doubt be questioning me about my relations with my witch wife and daughter." Harry smiled sympathetically as they walked to the door.

"I'm sure I will see you soon sir."

"I'm sure you will." He smiled and opened the door as Harry left. He waved goodbye as he headed down the hall, Ron and Fish quickly standing to follow behind him.

"Come on you two. We're going shopping."

\-\

Harry and the other two apparated out of the building from the Minister's floor since Harry didn't feel like walking outside past everyone who was going to bow at his feet. They apparated into muggle London and to a very personal shopping sight where there were hardly any people to bother them. He walked into one of the best jewelers in England and was prepared to buy Bonnie a perfect engagement ring.

"Harry, may I ask what we're doing in the middle of a jewelry store when we should be back at Hogwarts training?" Fish asked.

"Looking for a ring," Harry said obviously, walking up to the counter where a man was looking skeptical at him. "Hello. I'm looking for an engagement ring," Harry said, looking into the case.

"Sir, you're sixteen," the man said to Harry, as Ron and Fish behind him were smiling knowingly.

"Yes, but I'll be seventeen in a few months and I've already received the father's consent, so if you would please sell me a ring, thank you. And please don't ask if I have the money, do you really think I would come in here if I didn't?"

"Yes sir," the man said quickly, and Harry thought he finally realized who was standing before him.

Harry turned to the other two. "Gotta use your power for something," he sighed as the two were silently laughing. "What? It wasn't funny."

"You're going to propose?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, so?"

"Harry, we knew it would happen but do you really think this is the right time?" Fish asked seriously.

"I'm not going to purpose now? I'm going to do it after the war."

The two boys sighed and Harry rolled his eyes and turned back to pick out a ring.

\-\

When they got back to Hogwarts Harry apparated straight to the commons, first to put away the ring in his trunk and so he didn't have to see everyone right away. He then went straight to his father's office still expecting to see him there. And what a surprise.

"Wow, we're so special we don't even knock anymore," Sirius joked, while he stood up. He walked over quickly and pulled Harry into a tight hug. "That was a beautiful speech Harry. You made your mother cry."

"You all saw it?" Harry asked as Sirius set him back on the floor and let go.

"Of course we did. Your friend Tim… or Tom; still can't tell them apart, they did something with their celly-phone things and made a big screen come up in the Great Hall and we all got to watch you make your great speech. You know that first line is going to be your great quote of the century."

"I was so nervous I can hardly remember what I said," Harry sighed, sliding down the wall, thinking over all the people in the Great Hall listening to him make a fool out of himself.

"It wasn't bad Harry. It was a great speech. And everyone in the Great Hall was following suit with the muggles to. It was so cool. Everyone bowing to you like a God. It's great."

"That's not great. I haven't even done anything yet. What will they do when I actually kill Voldemort? Kneel at my feet and kiss my robes like I'm Merlin?"

"I don't think Merlin saved wizard and muggle worlds. So you'll be a bigger commodity then anything in the world. I bet you'll get a statue," Sirius said.

"I think you found your way to be knighted now," James smiled.

Harry sighed. "I don't want a statue." He looked up at his dad. "Maybe I'll kill Voldemort and we can tell everyone that it was you who killed him," he told his dad.

"Sorry, but I still wear glasses and I don't wear tight pants, I'm not as short as you and not nearly as skinny."

"Nobody will be there during the fight."

"Harry, you deserve the fame. Be grateful."

"Fine. But I did come here for a reason other then to talk about my big speech," he said standing up. "But I only need to talk to dad so… the rest of you need to leave."

"Oh fine. Just kick us out," Sirius said, pretending to be hurt while heading to the door. Remus followed shaking his head and patting Harry's shoulder.

"Mum that means you to."

"Whatever you can tell your father you can tell me," Lily said determinedly.

"Fine. You both might want to sit down though."

They both sat down slowly wondering what they were about to discuss.

"Okay. Now, you don't have to worry because I've already spoken to her father and gotten permission and everything so there's nothing holding me back except the fact that I want you're blessing to. After the war… I'm going to ask Bonnie to marry me and I wanted to ask for your blessing."

They both sat stunned for a moment before James was the first to talk. "Her father gave you his blessing to marry his sixteen-year-old daughter?"

"Yes. I asked him when I was at the Ministry. He said he was very excited to see me as his son-in-law."

"I'm sure he was, you're about to save the world."

"Dad, don't be jealous."

"I'm not jealous! I'm just pointing out the obvious."

"Do I have your blessing or not?"

"As much as I think you are still too young I guess you do deserve to be as happy as you can. So yes, you have my blessing. As long as it makes you happy."

"Thank you." He leaned down and pulled his father into a hug.

"And you didn't even want my blessing?" Lily asked angrily, interrupting the hug.

"Mum, it's not that I didn't want it, it's just that usually you get it from the father, you know?"

"Not when you're asking your own parents?"

"Fine. Mom, do I have your blessing as well?"

"Of course honey," she said, pulling him into her own hug.

"And you should both be happy that I'm at least waiting till after the war to propose so we should both be around seventeen when we have the wedding."

"Well that's comforting. When should I be expecting grandchildren?" Lily asked, pulling away.

"Mum! You're having your own baby!"

"When will I be expecting grandchildren?" she growled.

"You won't be. Unless we adopt or something, which won't be for a very long time. Bonnie can't have kids, some disease she got as a baby or something that made her barren or whatever. It's not my place to tell but you asked…."

"Oh that poor thing," Lily said. "You'll be adopting because I want grandchildren, you got it?"

"Can't you spoil your own children?"

"Yes, and then I can spoil yours. I want to be a young grandmother."

"Fine. I'll talk to Bonnie about it after we're married and I hit the age of twenty-five, okay?"

"Fine."

"I have to go now. What have Bonnie and the others been doing while I was gone?"

"I think they're still on the Quidditch field," James said.

"Alright. I'll see you later," he said, heading to the door. "Thanks again."

\-\

For the next week, Harry spent most of his time in the room of requirements or the library that was left empty for him by order of Madam Pince and Dumbledore so that Harry could study and search for the war. He had made up a training schedule for Fish so that he could run the practices while Harry was busy. It was all going well, besides the annoying bowing every time Harry passed someone, and as planned until the very fateful day Harry got his next letter. And last.


	26. God Save the Queen and all the Witty Ba

25

God Save the Queen (and all the Witty Banter of Wars)

Harry walked down the corridor, reading the very large book Bonnie had given him at Christmas hoping Da Vinci would be the one to help him defeat Voldemort, with Sirius and Remus behind him. They were being forced to pick back up on their duties by James after Harry was mobbed in the library by random girl fans.

"Oh my God I FOUND IT!" Harry yelled happily.

There was a sudden shake in the hall and Harry and the two were brought to the floor. There was some screaming in the Great Hall and the doors to Hogwarts opened harshly, slamming against the back of the wall.

"But I haven't studied the spell yeeeet," Harry whined, seeing the person walking through the door. "Please let it be just another trick to the war," Harry pleaded as he crawled off the floor and headed over to the same man who gave him his first letter. He knew that now that the shaking had stopped the Great Hall would all gather outside to watch and see what was going on.

He stepped up to the man and they both bowed. He handed Harry a letter and Harry had to read it first before he handed over his own just to make sure it made sense. He switched the letter he was ready to hand him with another one and the man left with his minions following behind. Harry stood still for a moment in the silent corridor holding the letter and silently reading.

Someone walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Harry, are you okay?" James asked.

"I think I'm going to be sick. Hold this page," he said, handing his book to his father and running out of the hall as James hit the floor at the weight of the book.

Bonnie ran after Harry and the others followed. Fish went over to James who was trying to pull the book off the floor with him. "I'll take it for you," Fish offered, book marking the page, closing it, and dragging it along up the stairs. Tim and Tom came over to help. "Why did we get stuck with labor? We're high up on the list."

\-\

Meanwhile Harry was sitting in the bathroom finishing off his empty stomach into the toilet while Bonnie comfortingly rubbed his back. "Harry, are you going to be okay?" She asked worriedly as he pulled away from the toilet.

"I should give up. I haven't eaten anything in two days," he said, sighing against the wall.

"That's not healthy," Bonnie reprimanded.

"Sorry. I was a little distracted."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and pulled him to his feet. "Wash your mouth and then come tell us what Voldemort said." She left the bathroom and let Harry finish. When Harry came back out he pulled out the letter. "Voldemort would like me to know but I guess I'll share. He writes:

Dear Potter,

It is that time and part of the war where you and I are to test our skills at fighting each other. Your skills against mine. I wonder who will win. Guess we'll find out. Our meeting place actually came from a guess from your good friend Fish, whoever gave him that name I'll be sure to kill. Have you ever been to the palace? It really should go well with this outing to the muggles plan I've got going. I hope you enjoyed that. Who would have seen that coming? Not you. Nice speech. When we're finished and I win and the queen is under my power I will put your head on my wall of victories right next to …"

Harry stopped reading and handed it to Bonnie because he couldn't continue; unnoticed by any of the others when he ripped off the bottom half and placed it in his pocket. "Harry, that isn't going to happen. Your mother will be fine; and the baby."

"How did he know anyway? No one told him she was pregnant. First my girlfriend, now my not even born sibling. He's so sick and twisted. I'm going to cut off his head, put it in a jar and use it to scare off reporters. And if I don't kill off all the death eaters I'll put the rest of his body in a soup and serve it to them. And when they all say, "mmm, what's your secret," I'll say, "human snake meat and whatever he ate before I killed him."

"_That's_ a little gross mate," Ron said, disgusted.

"Give me my book," Harry said, quickly grabbing it from Fish, Tim and Tom who just walked through the door panting and dropping it to the floor. He opened it to the page. "Bonnie, get me a plant will you?"

Bonnie set a plant down in front of him and Harry pointed a wand at it. "Please God or Merlin, whoever, please make this work." He took out his wand and pointed it at the plant. A jagged line of green shot out to the plant and the pot cracked and the plant fell over dead. "It worked!" He turned to the others. "Alright. We're leaving. Fish, send out the signals for everyone else to head out and take their places. Have Tim and Tom help you. I have to go say goodbye to all my loved ones before I go fight for the Queen's life before Voldemort's retarded-ness kills her. And then I have to put them all under lock and key so they can't get hurt. Don't leave until I give you the signal." He then walked off out of the commons.

Full copy of Voldemort's letter:

Dear Potter,

It is that time and part of the war where you and I are to test our skills at fighting each other. Your skills against mine. I wonder who will win. Guess we'll find out. Our meeting place actually came from a guess from your good friend Fish, whoever gave him that name I'll be sure to kill. Have you ever been to the palace? It really should go well with this outing to the muggles plan I've got going. I hope you enjoyed that. Who would have seen that coming? Not you. Nice speech. When we're finished and I win and the queen is under my power I will put your head on my wall of victories –censored for cruelty—or maybe your mother. I shall have the Potter family hanging on my wall. I'll be coming to Hogwarts for your family in a few hours so be prepared for me. I know that's where everyone is and I know you can't get rid of everyone that quickly.

Now onto our actual fight. I plan to meet you sometime around six o'clock at the Queen's palace so I can get to my next victim. You. I hope this sounds good for you because it sounds alright to me. I hope you're ready Potter because this is where it ends. You have no more time to plan left. We'll see who has the bigger army and most well trained. Mine has been continuing to train since before you were born and before your parents were in school. How do you ever think all your teenage warriors will defeat me and my army? How do you think, a mere 16 –year –old boy will be able to defeat the darkest, most powerful wizard to ever live? I don't think you know. You're not prepared Potter, which is too bad because there's no turning back now.

Your evil Dark Lord,

Lord Voldemort

P.S.

Read the ashes.

Harry headed down to his father's office, as after Harry went to throw up everyone went back to their business. Again he didn't bother to knock and just walked in again.

"Come to kick us out again?" Sirius asked, sitting on James's desk while Remus and James sat on the bed and Lily sat in the desk chair.

"Sirius, shut up," Lily reprimanded. She turned to Harry. "Are you okay Harry dear? You left kind of quickly."

"Yeah I'm fine. But the letter. It's time."

"Time for what?" James asked.

"The war," Harry sighed. "I'm supposed to be meeting Voldemort at 6 o'clock at the Palace. We're going to fight over the Queen of England. Doesn't that sound fun?"

"He's threatening the Queen?" Remus asked shocked.

"I guess. He's also threatening you two," he said pointing to his parents. "And the baby."

"What!"

"He really doesn't like the Potter family."

"Yeah, we knew that."

"Well, I think you should all head back to the house because he's supposed to be heading here in a few hours."

"Harry you're not the only one who's going to fight in this war. Why do you think we have the Order?"

"Because you didn't know I had an army of my own?"

"Some of us want revenge of our own."

"Dad, I won't have anyone getting killed so you have to go."

"Harry—"

"Dad, I won't have you die when we're the only ones left."

"He killed my dad because I wouldn't join him."

"Oh," Harry said, lowering his head _again,_ "okay. So either go or I'll pick you up by your shirt and apparate you there. And I don't care how much taller you are then me because you know I can. Now please, just go."

James walked forward and pulled Harry into a tight fatherly hug. "None of us are going to die, Harry. But I won't fight. Because you know I'll do whatever I can to make you happy. But I'll be there to come get you if anything happens okay?"

Harry nodded, wrapping his arms around his father. "Take care of mum."

"I will," James said, messing his hair and letting go. "You better take care of yourself. I will have two children. One of each or two sons. If something happens I'll find that book of Merlin's and bring you back to life no matter what I have to do. I'm a descendant too ya know?"

"I know," Harry smiled. He turned to Sirius. "Come give me a hug Sirius," Harry smiled, opening his arms.

"Aren't we supposed to hug after the war?"

"This is an emotional moment, get over here," Harry ordered. Sirius rolled his eyes and pulled his godson into a hug. "You're not fighting either you know? You have to make it to my wedding."

"What wedding?" Sirius asked.

"You'll find out after the war."

Sirius sighed and gave him one last squeeze before sending him to Remus.

"You're not fighting either Remus. Bonnie's still working on your cure and we'll need someone to test it on so stay healthy."

"What?"

Harry pulled away and went to his mother while Remus sat down. Lily pulled him into a tight hug around her large stomach. "Keep my little brother or sister safe mum. You and dad really have perfect timing don't you?'

"Oh, we'll just blame it on Voldemort. If your brother or sister is lucky, their birthday will be celebrated on the anniversary of the death of Voldemort."

\-\

When Harry headed back to the commons they were all waiting. Tim, Tim, and Fish had finished sending out the signal, which meant all across the country the other parts of his army were preparing to wait for their orders.

"You can all start to head out. Except Bonnie's group. Bonnie come with me." Everyone began to apparate out of the room. Harry took Bonnie's hand and led her over to the couch. He sat her down and took out the ring that he had bought in France over Christmas break. It was going to be a Christmas present but he thought this was better. "Bonnie, this is a promise ring for you. I'm sorry for making you worry before, continuously saying I was going to die and all. And I just wanted to give you this as a promise and a reminder that after this war I will come back okay. I'll come back to be with you okay?" he asked, taking her ring finger and holding the ring near it, waiting for her to nod before he put the ring on.

She nodded, tears gathering slightly in her eyes as he placed the ring on her finger.

"I'll be okay. Take care of yourself alright. If I make it and you don't, I'll die anyway. Don't get hurt."

"I'll be careful. I love you St. Jimmy," she said, using his name reminding herself of the last time they had to separate and how this was so much worse then before

"I love you too pet," he said gently, taking one of her curls in his fingers. He ran a hand into her hair and pulled her toward him and kissed her trembling lips. "It's okay pet," he said, leaning up to kiss her forehead. "We should go now." She nodded and let him help her stand up. They walked over to the group. Bonnie would be heading to the London with Fish, Tim, Tom, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Harry would be staying here for another hour evacuating the premises before Voldemort got there.

\-\

He headed down into the Great Hall where hopefully everyone was. It sure did look as such. He told everyone what was going on and to stay calm and head to Hogsmeade to apparate back to their homes. The children could apparate with their parents or use a floo that was open in any teacher's office. If they didn't have a house to go to many people offered to let them stay with them and the Potter family and Chang family took in many people without homes because of their enormous homes and bedroom supply. And Professor McNeal offered up any of her three houses in France, England or Ireland. She was sure her husband wouldn't mind since he was busy. Once he had gotten everyone out of the castle besides a few people that were in the Order and insisted on helping Harry fight.

"It's alright; I can take care of him. This is my job. Go do yours. Kill some death eaters. Go find out where Malfoy went," he told them. Apparently Malfoy wasn't in the castle and neither was he with Voldemort or his parents. Because when Voldemort came they were both with him, Draco nowhere to be found. Voldemort had brought five death eaters with him. Not including Severus who had claimed to be in his inner circle. He was most likely found out and now fighting in front of death eaters on the light side shocking the hell out of people.

Harry looked over at Voldemort. "Afraid you couldn't take me down on your own?" Harry asked, taking out his wand and flipping it around like he was bored.

"Where are the students and people living here in fear for their own lives?" Voldemort asked.

"You don't know?" Harry asked, playing shocked. "I thought you knew everything. What good are you as a ruler if you don't know everything that's going on every minute? If you run the world there could be a huge rebellion and you wouldn't see it coming."

"Do you ever shut up Potter?" Lucius asked.

"I had a Tootsie Roll before you came. I got a little bored waiting for you people. I read a magazine, practiced some spells, and ate lunch. You know I'm now going on the cover of Elle Girl. I used to only have a few pages now I'm a cover head. I'm waiting for GQ to come have a look at me. That should be fun."

"Would you shut up so we can get this over with quickly? Now hold still," Voldemort said, lifting his wand.

"Don't you want to fight a little? Do a little cha cha. After some witty banter for the war? You've gotta have some humor for your book."

"Your sarcasm isn't helping you."

"Well _I_ think that it is. Look how distracted I have you. You probably couldn't remember your own name if it hit you in the form of a book. It did once, do you remember that? I didn't know boys kept diaries but you know; if that's how you want to dominate the world it's not my business but if you ask me it's _kind of girly_," he whispered. "How are people supposed to look up to that, you know. Your problems with anger are not going to make up for your lack of masculinity. I mean, Nagini is scarier then you are."

"How would you know? Snakes aren't scary to you. You talk to them."

"My point exactly. Hey, did you hear about how I got a snake for my birthday, he's gotten big. I turned sixteen this year ya know. I don't remember getting a present from you. I would send you one but I'm not even sure how old you are. When you come back like you did, reborn, does that mean you're like two now?"

"Potter, if you don't stop babbling I'm going to put a silencing spell on you. Now shut up," Voldemort said venomously.

"Somebody needs a nap," Harry mocked. "You're just miffed because I messed up your plans. There's no one here for you to kill and you're supposed to fight me at the Palace. Things don't always go your way. You should make better arrangements."

"Will somebody stun him, please?" Voldemort yelled at his minions.

Lucius pointed his wand at Harry and the spell that was aimed at him was collected into ball of light in Harry's hands as he raised one against the spell, palm facing them. He turned his hand and pushed the light back at Lucius. He fell over onto the floor stunned. Harry turned and looked up at the others who were in slight shock but got over it. The death eaters apparated away from the castle, closely followed by Voldemort, leaving Lucius behind.

"One down, four more to go."

\-\

Harry apparated right inside the palace. There were more death eaters here in the palace then there were at Hogwarts. He would have to take them all down before he went for Voldemort. He moved against a slick brick wall and grabbed at a bar suspended above his head—the castle already starting to fall apart, showing that a fight had already gone on here—as he heard footsteps down the hall and pulled himself up and slipped his legs over the bar to hang upside down and pulled himself into a ball around it. He saw the death eater walking underneath him and masnuvered the St. Jimmy stick silently out of the loop in his jeans. The death eater had stopped in his tracks, obviously sensing someone there. Harry lowered his body behind the death eater, silent as the grave, and maneuvered himself down like a bat. The man turned to face him. Harry smiled and swung the bar; whacking it to the man's waist sending him flying to the floor.

Harry flipped off the bar and dropped down, flat, onto his feet before he continued walking down the corridor, stepping on the death eater's waist as he walked. He knocked out three more death eaters with just a whack of his stick, walking without any sound behind them—stalking his prey—on his way to the Queen's quarters. "And Voldemort wonders whose army is better. Well duh," Harry said to himself as he stepped over a death eater he had stabbed with his dagger. He stepped up to a pair of double doors, sticking his dagger back into its sheath on his leg, knowing by blue prints he had looked over that this was where the queen was if she had bothered to stay in one place. He pulled open the door slowly.

"Don't come any closer. I've got a gun."

"Your majesty. I'm not a death eater," Harry said carefully, slowly stepping into her office. "My name is Harry Potter. I'm—"

"You're the boy that was on the television. The Prime Minister likes you, he talks about you often," she said, standing up from behind her desk.

"Yeah. I've known him since I was seven. But your majesty we should start getting you out of here. My foe will be on his way here soon and—"

He was cut off again as a "boom" shook the palace. The Queen covered her head to protect her from any pieces of ceiling that may fall.

"Or maybe he's already here. We have no time to find out. Please come with me. You'll be safe, I promise. He'll be sure to find you here and a gun isn't going to stop him. Though if used right you could save yourself from the killing curse. But I doubt any of us could be that lucky today."

She sighed and stood walking over to him. Harry opened the door slightly and looked around the corner. He then opened the door wide and let her through before stepping in front to make sure no one was coming at them. He now had to find a place to hide the Queen.

"Where are your grandsons?"

"Harry's probably hiding out in a club somewhere and William is most likely trying to get the mob back. I don't know what went wrong with him."

Harry heard footsteps. "Go hide over there," Harry said pointing to dark shadows in the corner. "Death eaters are stupid, don't worry." He grabbed onto a chandelier above him and pulled himself up. When a death eater passed below his feet he dropped down, he turned, and Harry whacked him hard in the head with the pole. The death eater went straight to the floor. Harry smiled and stepped over him. "Come on," Harry called to the Queen.

She stood up from her corner and walked over the man lying on the floor, blood rushing from his temple.

"Young man, are you sure you should be doing this? Shouldn't you leave this to officers and whatever law enforcement you have in the wizard world?"

"If we left everything up to the politicians we would all have been dead a long time ago. Until Voldemort is dead, I am the law."

The Queen followed silently behind him, wondering at the strength she had never seen in any sixteen year-old before. Harry finally found her a better hiding space, knocking four more death eaters to the floor dead on his way there. He was still nearby when Voldemort met up with him.

\-\

"Potter, so we meet again," Voldemort said as they stood at two ends of the hallway.

"That's a stupid thing to say when I saw you a few hours ago."

"Don't you own a watch? It's practically seven o'clock at night. Your poor little minions are probably dead and buried by now," he smiled.

"Hey, guy who outed himself to people he doesn't know or like, why don't you just come out of the closet already? You have no chance of getting a wife looking like you do. Don't you _love _these little chats of ours?'

"Shut up Potter! You should be making your last words your best. You don't want to be remembered as the person who died telling his enemy about his sad love life."

"I won't be remembered as him. I'll never be remembered as a person again."

"No, just the-boy-who-_lost_."

"That's creative."

"You're defending yourself with a stick. You can hardly mock. You're weak. A metal pole? We're wizards, haven't you learned anything from that old fruit basket you call a mentor?"

"What is a wand but a stick many inches shorter? And I know lots of things. Many that you don't. "

"You know nothing," he said venomously, "you're still a child."

"What do you have to prove that?"

Voldemort aimed his wand quickly and flung a curse at Harry. He ducked, flinging himself onto the floor. The curse hit the wall and it began to melt away. Harry jumped back onto his hand that missed by just a centimeter.

\-\

Harry was lying on the floor, his body burning from the heat of all the spells his skin had absorbed from the fight. His arms were cut up and bloody and his sleeve was falling off. His pants now had a stylish hole in his knee, which was good at the moment because he wanted _all_ his skin to touch the cold tile floor.

"Get off the floor Potter. Too weak to finish the fight?" he asked mockingly. He kicked Harry in the side and Harry rolled over but fell back onto his stomach and tried to pull himself off the floor. His hands scraped across the cracks in the floor causing the raw burns to crack and bleed. Shooting continuous curses and fire from his hands and sometimes stopping Voldemort's curses with them wasn't doing great things for his skin.

"Why don't you just give up Potter? Roll over and die for me," he laughed.

"I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death," he quoted.

"Where'd you get that one? Your idol? The great, and dead, Leonardo Da Vinci? If you don't stop quoting people and get off the floor and fight me, you'll find yourself out of time."

"And surely un-fearing," Harry said, pushing himself off the floor with great strength. "I, unlike you, do not fear time or death. I wish I had more time to spend with the people I love. But dying will be okay for me. I'll see them again soon. In time, I'll be remembered by people everywhere for doing something great, bringing muggle and wizard worlds to peace after they were brutally shoved into one world. I will have people mourning my death for weeks, maybe months, from all over the world. But you, you will have nothing. You'll end up in Hell with your dead whiney death eaters who will probably whine about how you lost for the rest of eternity. And out here, people will be celebrating your death for centuries to come. And no one will ever remember what fear they had in you. Because you did it right in a sense, people don't react to love they react to fear. But they sure don't remember it once it's gone. Not when the thing they fear has been destroyed and never to return again. They won't remember their fear, or why they had it; they'll only remember that _you_ _lost_."

Harry slowly pointed his wand at Voldemort who was stunned by his words but Harry knew the shock would ware off in a few seconds. "I'm sorry Tom." A flash of green light shot out of his wand and as if in slow motion the light left his wand and made its way right to Voldemort's chest as he was moving away. It was perfectly aimed and targeted, just like how he had trained, dreamed, hoped, wished and thought it would be. Voldemort's body stopped dead center and turned to ash, the dust from his body falling down over the empty robes that lay in a pile on the floor.

Harry waited and watched the pile of ash, sheltered by the black robes, having to make sure Voldemort didn't come back this time. He walked over to it and looked down on it. He was surely gone for good.

He looked around him; the hall was quiet, dead quiet. It wasn't until the battle was over that he saw all the dead bodies. Tom was right. The time had passed quicker then he had realized; everything must have turned into such a blur. There were bodies of death eaters everywhere. Blood was flowing from one person's broken skull and running together with another person's. There was blood covering his own body: his scar was bleeding, his arms, his hands, his knees, and his shoulder. His skin burned like he was one fire, and not the kind he set on himself. He hadn't realized how much damage he had done and this was only one hall. How had he not realized he was killing them all? Maybe he blacked out his mind so he wouldn't remember it, so he didn't damage himself. So he wasn't distracted. Killing people didn't do anything good to your mental status. But he saw it now, and he knew it was him who did it all because it quickly started flooding back to him. How he had whacked one after the other, stabbed them to make sure they were dead, killed them all till they very obviously gone. He hadn't thought about it when he was doing it, it all just came out of instinct. He only remembered the ones that weren't harsh.

He slowly slipped down a wall, which was covered in his own blood after Voldemort had thrown him up against it, and sat himself down on the floor between two death eaters. He looked to the side and saw that he was sitting beside someone he knew. Nott, a boy no older then himself, was lying bloody on the floor with his head lying beside his hip. Harry stood up again quickly and away from him. He sat down on the floor where he had been standing, facing Voldemort. He sat down and laid his head on the floor beside him, curling up his legs and resting his cheek on the cold floor trying to cool his temperature. He watched Voldemort's ashes sit in front of him; he watched them, still as stone, his eyes never blinking until he couldn't help it and slowly fell to sleep.

\-\

James, Sirius and Remus led the group into the palace followed by the Order. They walked through the hallway, stepping over random bodies when they came up. "Wow, someone was busy. Who was down here?" James asked.

"Just Harry apparently," Mad-Eye said.

"Well, that's great. He'll never be right in the head again," James said sadly. They turned a hallway and James stopped dead in his tracks, Sirius bumping into him.

"James?" Remus asked, walking forward to ask him what happened but found himself shocked with what he saw as well. The floors were covered in dried blood and obviously dead bodies; there was a pile of ash at one end of the room covered with a robe.

James stepped over one of the bodies, pulling his arm away from Sirius who tried to stop him but soon followed anyway. James looked around at the bodies, hoping to God that Harry wasn't one of them. He stopped when he saw him. He slowly kneeled down on the floor in front of his son and lifted a piece of his fringe to show the scar on his forehead, bleeding. He was bleeding everywhere. He sat down on the floor and gently shifted his son into his arms and held him against his chest. He leaned his head into Harry's shoulder and quietly sobbed.

"James," Sirius said gently.

James whacked his hand away and wrapped his arms tight around Harry and slowly rocked him back and forth. "You're not gone baby, are you," he whispered into his shoulder. "Please baby."

The others just stood and watched, Harry most obviously wasn't breathing but James believed he would up and start again.

"Come on Harry, you have to wake up. If you don't I won't be able to ground you for coming here on your own with no help at all," James said, faking anger.

"I'm tired," came Harry's small rough voice, breathed into James's chest as James held him there.

James gasped in relief and sighed, replying quickly to relieve his son. "That's okay baby. You just keep breathing and I'll promise to stop freaking out," James said, smiling at his son who couldn't even see it.

"I think I broke something. It punctured my lung," Harry mumbled as James tucked an arm under Harry's knees and lifted him slightly off the floor. Harry groaned.

"Sorry baby. We'll be home soon, okay?"

"Someone should go see if the Queen is still here. I passed out before I went to check on her."

Two of the Order members quickly went to look for her.

James stood up and carried Harry carefully out of the room with everyone following behind. When they were in a clear room James looked down at his son. "Harry, we're gonna apparate okay? But I've got you so don't worry."

Harry nodded, already half- asleep again.

They then prepared to apparate home.

\-\

Meanwhile, at the Potter Mansion…

Everyone was sitting around the house, even the people from other countries had gathered at the Potter house as part of their orders and to make sure that their leader made it back okay after killing the nemesis.

It was a very dismal few hours. They all finished their battles in one piece with a few scratches here and there fixed up quickly by on hand healers. Some people were talking but others were mute silent. Most silent was Bonnie. She wouldn't even listen to a word anyone said to her. She just sat on her chair in Harry's room staring deeply at the promise ring on her finger. Only her and a few choice people were allowed in his room because Mrs. Potter wouldn't allow it. Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Fish, Tim, Tom, and Bonnie. They had all tried to cheer her up a little but she refused to move a muscle or say anything at all.

Suddenly a fair few people apparated into the room. James walked quickly over to the bed and set Harry down while Sirius went to call for healers. The group went over to see. "You should all go downstairs now, he's just gonna get healed up."

"Can I talk to him for a second?" Bonnie asked quietly, saying her first words since she had left Harry. James smiled gently and gave a small nod. Bonnie walked over to Harry and gently swept his fringe back and kissing his forehead.

"Hi Bonnie," Harry said hoarsely.

Bonnie smiled at the sound of his voice. "Hi Harry. How are you feeling? Really bad?"

"Better now that you're here," he said quietly, opening his eyes to see her. He reached gently and picked up her hand. "I told you I'd come back."

"Yes you did," she smiled, lifting his hand and gently kissing his palm.

"Will you stay with me?"

"I think your father wants to stay with you," Bonnie said, looking up at James.

"He got to carry me here. Why should he have all the fun?" Harry smiled.

Sirius ran into the room, healers rushing over to Harry.

"Sirius, we had more healers then that," James said.

"Yes, but the others are with your wife now, she going into labor," Sirius smiled.

"What!" He looked at Harry and seemed to be at a crossroads.

"Just go dad. I'll still be alive when you come back. It's okay," he said gently.

James walked over and kissed his forehead again. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I'm sure you will."

James then ran out of the room and went to find his wife.

Harry turned to Bonnie. "Now you get to stay with me," he told Bonnie.

She sat down beside him as the healers started to heal his scars and clean off the blood. Harry closed his eyes and slowly went to sleep after they gave him a dreamless sleep potion so they could work on his bones and his punctured lung. When they were finished they gave him some healing potion for anything that might have been left behind and left him to finish healing on his own.

The others sat by Harry's television as the news continued to play what they knew about how the war was going. They wouldn't know if it was over until Harry woke up and made a public statement about whether Voldemort was dead or not.

\-\

Harry woke up slowly and carefully opened his eyes to the bright light that slowly faded as he got used to it. He looked to his side to see Bonnie lying curled up on a chair beside him still holding his hand. Everyone seemed to be asleep and it seemed to be the middle of the night. He gently sat up in bed and looked over at what he was hoping would be his future wife. He stood up and went over to her before gently lifting her off her chair and into his arms. He laid her down on his bed and then lay down beside her and wrapped his arms around her waist, snuggling into her warm clothes that smelt like her, like roses. _I can't wait to spend my life with you,_ he thought, before going back to sleep.

\-\

Bonnie woke up and looked around. She felt arms wrapped around her waist and gently turned over in bed and saw Harry sleeping beside her. "Harry," she said shocked. She smiled at him and leaned down to kiss his lips gently waking him up. He smiled up at her. "Harry, did you pull me into bed with you while I was sleeping?" Bonnie giggled, sitting up to look down at him.

"Well you were sleeping right there. I felt so alone without you right here," Harry said, hugging her waist closer to him.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah, I feel great."

"So what happened? Is Voldemort—"

"Ash on the floor," Harry said, holding himself on his side with his elbow as Bonnie looked down at him again. "You think somebody would go collect it for me?"

"You want it?"

"He's my arch foe. I killed him, why shouldn't I have his remains? Then I can be one of those crazy old men who sits staring at something. Mine will be a glass of ashes that I talk to and laugh at."

Bonnie smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Maybe we should stop dating."

Harry laughed. He reached up and stroked her cheek. "Is everyone okay?" he asked softly, dismal at the prospect of someone being lost in his war.

"Everyone but Ial, who thinks she'll turn evil because she ate so many evil people, and your mother, who was in labor for eight hours while you were sleeping. Cause you know, labors very painful…" She trailed off, staring into his eyes as he continued to stare into hers. She couldn't continue to look at his eyes he was staring so intently at her. "What?" she asked, almost shyly. She had never spoken shy to him before, then yet again, he had never looked at her that way either. With so much passion in his eyes.

She felt his hand press gently on her cheek and turned her to face him again. "You are so beautiful you know," he said passionately.

Bonnie stared for a second then smiled. "You silly," she giggled. "You've just come back from war, you're delusional. Go back to sleep."

"I love you," Harry said, passionate still as his fingers brushed her smooth cheek.

"Harry, are you dying? Because if you are you should tell me now," she said, sitting on her knees and staring down at him worriedly.

Harry smiled at her and leaned up more to capture her lips on his. Bonnie realized he had never kissed her like this. It was smooth, soft, gentle. Not passionate or heated; only loving. Like their mouths were one and they would never separate and would never have to. It was slow, with no need to speed it up as though they had all the time in the world.

Harry slowly sat up as they kissed and held both hands to her cheeks now. He gently pulled away and looked down at his lap as Bonnie kept her eyes closed; lost in the moment. "Bonnie," he said gently. She slowly opened her eyes, grazing a finger over the center of her bottom lip. She looked into his eyes, like his kiss, no longer full of passion but only full of longing and love.

"Bonnie, I just want you to know that I've loved you since the first time I saw you. When we were seven years old and you were perky and full of bright, eye watering pastels," he said, making her laugh slightly nervous about what he was getting to. "I could spend my life with anyone in the world and the only person I want to be with, for as long as I live, someone I would die for, is you." Bonnie's eyes started tearing up at that as she thought she had a slight idea of what was coming but she couldn't imagine it true and happening before her eyes. "You're the only one that can make me as happy as I've ever been. I was miserable without you and after I had met you and then lost you, I couldn't understand how I had gone on living all those years that I didn't know you. You are the most precious thing to ever enter my life.

"When I thought I had almost lost you, I couldn't stand it. I felt a bit of myself die inside with the thought of never letting you know how much I truly love you. I felt I would never be able to go on, that I would self-destruct without you by my side. And even now I don't think I would have lasted this long if I had never known you. I don't think I would be able to go on, another day, if I didn't know I would be with you for the rest of my life and forever more. Bonnevilla Jackeline McNeal Price, you would make me the happiest man in the world, even while we're at this time when our freedom has been sent to us from heaven, if you would do me the honor, of being my wife. Will you marry me?"

Bonnie's mouth hung open trying to send out an answer as tears continued to stain her face.

She suddenly had a flash of all her memories with Harry over the years since they met, and remembered all her thoughts about her love for Harry since then, as she looked down at the shining princess shaped diamond he held out to her.


	27. I love him

26

"_I love him."_

**Harry and Bonnie stood beside each other watching Mr. Parker to find a good time to head in. Harry was kneeled, his hands folded over the top of his St. Jimmy stick watching him determinedly. His eyes silently moved toward Bonnie watching her quietly. Her hair pulled back in a ponytail and her curls falling over her face as they fell out of the knot. Her clothes now black and less perky. But Harry still saw the innocence in her. **

"**St. Jimmy!" Fish yelled. "Ah, we missed him again. Why didn't you tell us to move in? We had him. He was in plain sight," he said frustrated. Harry looked over at him and saw Mr. Parker glaring at them from his window and slowly shutting his blinds, getting his toupee stuck between the blinds and fighting to pull it out. Harry shook his head and turned to Fish. **

"**Sorry. I got distracted." **

**Fish looked shocked and his face was blank as he stared at his friend. He then saw Harry give a slight look to Bonnie who was sitting on the ground straitening out the hem of her black skirt causing her curls to fall again. She blew her hair out of her face only to have it fall back. Fish groaned and grabbed his friend's arm. Harry's eyes widened as he was jerked away. Fish watched Bonnie as he stood Jimmy in front of him. "St. Jimmy, what is going on here?"**

"**What do you mean?"**

"**She's got you completely distracted. Your mind is turning to **_**bloody shit**_**. I haven't heard you use a swear word in four hours straight and you got distracted on our mission to steel Mr. Parker's toupee. What's up with you mate? You've gone completely sane."**

"**Hey, don't insult me."**

"**I'm not insulting you St. Jimmy. But she's not supposed to be here. She's distracting you from our work. We're seven years old, mate. We're not even supposed to like girls."**

"**But she's so adorable. Look at her," Harry said, as though he were talking about a puppy. They both looked to Bonnie who was making Tim and Tom actually crack a smile, which had never happened before. Her large smile and bright, innocent, non-threatening, unscathed eyes. "She's my pet, Fish. That's what I'll be calling her. Even if you give her another name. She's my little, blond, perfect pet."**

"**She's a human being St. Jimmy: A blond, curly haired, blue eyed, pink, frilly dress, Barbie playing, girl, human being mate. **_**Not **_**your pet. You can't keep her St. Jimmy. She doesn't belong. What am I going to name her? Frills?" **

"**You don't have to name her anything. We hardly named Tim and Tom; just switched their names around. And we hardly know her. She could have a little dark side to her." **

"**Where? What part about her is threatening?" **

"**Are you two talking about me?" They both turned quickly to see Bonnie, smiling innocently at them. "Cause if you were, you know I'll have to know what you said about me. It's not polite to talk about people behind their back," she smiled. They both saw the devilish feature in her eyes as she smiled innocently. **

"**Hell's Angel," Fish sighed suddenly out of nowhere. He turned to Harry. "Fine, you can keep your bloody pet." **

**Harry smiled. "Thank you Fish," he smiled, bowing slightly. "I promise you won't regret it."**

\-\

*** Bonnie stood in front of her full length mirror examining her beautiful white dress and her perfect veil that her father had bought specially designed in France for her. All for her very special occasion at church. She was eight years old, in a white gown, waiting for her father to come up and tell her that the car was here and that they were leaving to head to the church for her first communion. Harry was going to be there along with Fish, Tim and Tom and Bonnie was especially excited to see St. Jimmy. **

**She played in front of the mirror twirling her dress in circles and fixing her small white gloves while talking to the mirror as though it was St. Jimmy and it was her wedding day instead of her communion. "Why thank you for coming to our wedding. Me and Jimmy are so happy that you could make it," she said to the mirror, giggling happily. **

"**Why wasn't I invited to the wedding?" said a manly voice from the doorway. **

**Bonnie turned quickly to the door where her father was standing with a grand smile. "Daddy, what are you doing?"**

"**Apparently, I'm here for the wedding aren't I? I am the father of the bride," he laughed, walking over to her. **

"**You've invaded my privacy. You can't tell anyone about this daddy. Especially not St. Jimmy. Please don't tell him," she pleaded, pulling at her white gloves.**

"**I won't tell him darling," he smiled, kneeling down to her height. "You have a little crush on St. Jimmy, why don't you tell him?"**

"**I could never **_**tell**_** him daddy! He's St. Jimmy. He'll grow up and marry one of the fashionable models like in the magazines. He's too good for me," she sighed, looking at the floor. **

"**Sweetheart, don't say that. Any boy would be happy to have you. But they have to have my consent first, okay?" he laughed. **

"**St. Jimmy's just a friend daddy. I pretend all I want but I'll never be his," she said, dejectedly, staring at the floor. **

"**You think about this way too seriously for an eight-year-old, darling. Shouldn't you be thinking of your next trip to France or how much pocket money I'm going to give you for candy this week?" Bonnie still looked forlorn. Cameron sighed. "Come on darling. The car awaits us. You don't want to be late showing off your beautiful white dress to St. Jimmy do you?" he asked her. She smiled and took his hand as they went out the door. **

**\-\**

**They headed off to pick up Fish, Tim, and Tom who were all at the same house that morning eating breakfast on the porch while people yelled from the inside. When the limo stopped they dropped their bowls and left them on the porch as they excitedly hopped in the car. "Wow, a limo. We've hit the jackpot of friends boys. You're so lucky Bonnie," Fish said, wearing his shabbiest suit but it was the only one he owned but he still wore his high tops. **

**They then headed to Harry's house. They waited outside the house for a second wondering if anyone in the house noticed a limo sitting outside their door or the beep from the horn. **

**Cameron looked to his wife who gave a nod to a worried looking Bonnie who stared out the window. "I'll go get him," Cameron offered and climbed out of the car and walked up the steps to the door. He went to knock at the door but the door opened first. "Good morning Mrs. Dursley, is Harry ready?"**

"**He can't make it. He's sick."**

"**Oh," Cameron said, acting surprised, knowing they would say anything to keep Harry locked up. **

"**Well could I see him? I'd like to let him know how much we all hope he gets better soon."**

"**He can't come out. He's highly contagious."**

"**I'll take my chances."**

"**Mr. Price, I suggest you leave and get off my property right now before I call the police for harassment and for stalking my nephew."**

"**Mrs. Dursley I have done no such–"**

**Petunia was pushed out of the way by Vernon Dursley who stood scowling at the door with Harry in front of him. "He's to be back promptly at two, no later and no earlier. If you have him out any later I'll inform the authorities."**

"**Of course sir," Cameron agreed, thinking the whole thing quite insane but didn't dare say anything in front of Harry. He was very prideful of his home life, no matter how sad it looked to other people he defended it with power. **

"**Go on, boy," Vernon said, pushing him forward. Harry moved forward and knelt before the man. "Good morning Sir."**

"**Morning St. Jimmy," Cameron replied, giving a slight bow as well. **

"**Can't believe you give into this shit. I was hoping an older man such as yourself would explain to him what a little poof he is."**

"**Mr. Dursley, I believe I've asked you not to say such things in my presence haven't I?" Cameron said, feeling Bonnie's watchful eyes from the open window behind him. **

"**As I've said. Two o'clock."**

"**Of course. Come along St. Jimmy," he said, offering his hand. Harry ignored it for right now and followed Cameron to the car where he opened it for Harry first and then went to the other side to climb in. **

**Harry rolled down the window as the car drove off and stuck his hand out the window holding up his middle finger to his uncle. "Bye-bye, you bloody soupers!" he called. He crawled back into the car as his uncle came running after the car. He looked over at Bonnie, who raised her eyebrows at him. "Hey pet. Sorry it took me so long. They tried to murder me again," he said casually. "With poison. Like they thought I was really not going to notice when they gave me a normal sized meal this morning. Anyway, happy communion day. You look pretty."**

"**Thanks," she said, blushing slightly after Harry had looked away. **_**God he's pretty when he smiles. Shut up Bonnie, he's not even thinking about you. He just almost got poisoned and all you can think is how pretty he is. Stupid, stupid, stupid. **_**She looked up at him again and saw his hair falling into his beautiful green eyes as he looked at his knees. **_**God he's pretty.**_

\-\

*** Harry stood in front of a crowd of reporters, showing his new painting for the museum. Bonnie and Fish wandered around waiting for it to be over while continuously directing their attention to Harry as though to make sure he was still there. Tim and Tom were talking to Kim and Pim, twins who they were thinking of recruiting to the group. Word seemed to spread after Bonnie was welcomed in by St. Jimmy that he, Jesus of Suburbia, was taking in followers. Even if they were all around nine years old, it didn't mean they didn't seem or act old. What nine year olds come to an art exhibit without parents anyway? (Ones with family problems or ones who come here too often. Or both.) It was mostly people from their street but then they were getting calls from people everywhere who heard about the kid who was going to save the world and end the hatred they had for their parents and that their parents had for them. **

**Bonnie and Fish sat on the floor watching Harry try to describe his art while the professor tried to take credit for Harry's talent. He slapped his hand away from the microphone. **

"**Ignore him, the pupil has outranged the master since he was two. He knows nothing of art, just money. Please direct all questions to me if you will?"**

"**Fish, I have to ask you a question," Bonnie said seriously. **

"**Mhmm?" he asked, watching Harry up on the platform making sure no one touched him or got too close. **

"**Does St. Jimmy like me?"**

"**What do you mean? Of course he does, you're his pet human. He brought you along."**

"**I know that. But do you think he likes me as more then a friend?"**

"**I think maybe you're his best friend," he said, trying to answer her question without really knowing what she meant. **

**Bonnie just gave in. "Never mind. I'm sure he has other things on his mind. More interesting things."**

**\-\**

***Harry, Fish, Bonnie, Kim, Pim, Tim, Tom, Toilet, and a girl named Ann, who had just joined a few days ago, were all sitting on the bleachers around the gym at their Community Center. Social Services said that since they couldn't get Harry into St. Brutis's because he was a prodigy they made him come to the community center during the summer to interact with other people and learn to control his anger. He wasn't doing so well. He had punched Rick a few days ago because he looked at Bonnie the wrong way and he had hit him so hard he went to the hospital for a day. **

**Fish was sitting behind Harry with his feet on the seat in front of him. Harry was sitting between his feet and beside Ann who was staring at him like a hungry puppy. Bonnie sat beside Fish glaring at her over Harry's head as Fish played with Harry's hair. Tim and Tom sat on Harry's other side and Kim and Pim behind them. And Toilet on the other side of Fish. **

**Harry leaned his head on Fish's knee while looking down at his summer homework. "Looks good Jimmy," Fish said, looking over his shoulder at the drawing in his book. **

"**I don't think I'll turn it in. I don't like it." **

"**I like it," Ann said flirtaciously. **

"**Thanks," Harry said, leaning forward over his drawing to look at it better and to hide it from Ann. **

**Ann scooted closer and gently laid her head on Harry's shoulder. Being new, Harry wasn't close to her and started to shift his shoulder away. **

"**Ann," Fish said reprimanding and protectively. **

**Ann slowly lifted her head away and looked around slightly angry because she couldn't flirt with him. **

"**Hey St. Jimmy," Bonnie said to him sweetly, her dress black but her rubber sandals bright pink as she was cheating with the dark outfits. **

"**Yeah, Pet?" Harry asked, actually talking to her like she was his pet, something in his voice. She didn't seem to mind. **

"**I like your drawing," she smiled. **

"**Yeah?" he asked, looking it over again as though she was the first person to compliment it. "Thanks Pet," he said stroking her ankle with the back of his fingers. "Come sit with me," he said, holding out his hand to help her down without looking up at her. He passed his sketch book back to Fish who took it and carefully shut it and placed it in a bag beside him with Tim and Tom. **

**Bonnie took his hand and stepped onto the row he was sitting on. He pulled her over to him and sat her down between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. Bonnie turned to Ann and stuck her tongue out at her. She ignored the others around them in the gym who stared at them. People always stared, calling St. Jimmy 'that weird kid' behind his back. Fish would always glare at them but they always said things anyway. St. Jimmy didn't care. He was like that. **

**Someone in the middle of the floor called for him. "Mr.….St. Jimmy?" they said questioningly. **

"**Tell them I don't want to go on the floor today," Harry said into Bonnie's hair, never speaking to adults unless it was Bonnie's father. He thought all adults were only trying to tell him he couldn't do what he already knew he could. **

"**He's not coming!" Bonnie yelled back at the woman.**

"**Maybe Mr. Potter should talk for himself," the woman said. "His sheet says he needs social interaction, does it not?"**

"**Maybe Social Services should stop sending people here since it obviously doesn't work," Fish said angrily. "Now go to the next person," he ordered. **

**Everyone's head snapped back to the woman to see what she would do. The small group that followed St. Jimmy always seemed to get away with everything but maybe this was the last straw.**

**But like every other time his friends blocked him, the woman glared and went back to her list. **

**They spent the next two hours sitting together, Bonnie with Harry, sitting with him as his pet as Ann sat unhappily beside them. Bonnie smiled happily to herself. **_**He likes me best. Any time now he'll tell me he loves me and that I'm not just his pet. I'll humor his insanity till then. It's fun anyway. And I love him way too much to let go of anything I have with him right now.**_

**AN: Ann later left the group when she continued to misunderstand the point of being friends before anything else and the rule of no contact with St. Jimmy. **

\-\

***"But daddy we can't move to France, I love it here! This has been the best time of my life being here. All my friends are here. I love them. What about St. Jimmy?" she screamed as she stood on the first step of the staircase, holding the railing to make sure she didn't fall down in shock or horror. **

"**Sweetie, I know he's your best friend but–"**

"**NO! He's more then that! I have to stay here. I won't go! You can't make me!"**

"**Bonnie, you love France. It's one of your favorite places in the world."**

"**Only when Harry's there. Can he still meet us for Christmas? Or the summer?"**

"**Dumbledore has asked us not to bother him. He needs to stay focused on his studies."**

"**He's just using him! They want to make him sick. Leaving him here with those muggles when he could be safe and happy with me. He needs me."**

"**It's not our place to decide Bonnie. And it's not forever. When you're older you'll understand."**

"**I don't want to understand! I want to be with him! I swear daddy, any day now he'll realize he doesn't want me as a pet anymore. He'll realize how much he loves me."**

"**Isn't he dating that Anna girl?"**

**Bonnie growled. "I'M NOT GOING!" she yelled, and ran up the stairs to her bedroom. "And by the way, we're 11-years-old. He's not serious with Anna."**

**\-\**

***Bonnie walked mournfully toward the center of the street where her friends were gathered. They sat in the center of the road, never afraid of cars passing through during the day. **

**St. Jimmy turned at her footsteps and saw her coming. He crawled off the ground and ran over to her. "Come on Pet, we're planning out our next year while we're gone at Hogwarts," he said excitedly, dragging her over to the circle. Bonnie pulled her hand away when they were just inches away. Harry turned to her looking confused by her action. "What's wrong pet?"**

**The entire group was looking at her now, waiting to hear what happened. **

"**Um, St. Jimmy…. Something horrible has happened."**

"**What is it? Is the sky falling again, Pet?" he asked, thinking it was a joke. "Because you know I won't fall for that again."**

"**No, the sky isn't falling St. Jimmy," she said dismally. **_**Though it feels as if my world is come crashing to its end.**_

"**Then what is it?" he asked, deeply concerned by the look on her face. **

"**My father is moving my mother and me to France."**

"**What?"**

"**We leave tomorrow morning."**

"**But…." He stepped forward for a moment and quickly took a step back again to regain himself. He stepped forward again and walked up close to her. "But you're Pet. You can't leave me," he said stubbornly, uncaring if he sounded selfish. **

"**I know."**

"**You can't leave. It's signed in the St. Jimmy book. You're my pet, they can't take you. I'm sure your father just forgot. We'll go remind him and then everything will be okay again." He grabbed her hand to pull her back to her house but Bonnie stayed put. Harry slowly moved back to face her.**

"**It's not going to work like that Jimmy," she said softly. **

"**But you're supposed to stay here," he said, reaching his thinly gloved hand into her hair, the fingers of them cut off so he could touch her curls. "You're the one thing I wanted that no one could take away from me," he said, stroking her temple with his thumb. **

"**I'm sorry. I don't want to go. I asked him if I could stay and … well I'm being forced."**

"**What about Christmas?"**

"**He said we can't bring you anymore. I'm so sorry St. Jimmy, but I won't be here tomorrow."**

"**But…" He had run out of arguments. He knew she wasn't going to stay just because he wanted to keep her. His hand slid out of her curls, down her cheek and down to his side so they were standing face to face but both were looking at the cement. "I guess you're going then."**

"**I will be back. At some point."**

"**Yeah, but you won't be going to Hogwarts either will you?" **

**Bonnie shook her head slowly, "No," tears falling freely down her cheeks as she was too distressed to bother with them. **

"**You can go then I guess," he said, trying not to show emotion. **

"**I'm so sorry St. Jimmy. I'll miss you." **

"**Bonnie!" her father called. **

"**Bye everyone." Before he could push away, Bonnie grabbed Harry into a tight hug and for the last time, played with his hair, as he slowly wrapped his arms loosely around her back. She then pushed away so she wouldn't start crying harder. She sniffed and waved goodbye to everyone again. Before walking slowly back home and then heading into a run till she reached her house and harshly slammed the door. She watched from the window with tears in her eyes. **

"**St. Jimmy," Fish said hesitantly, "are you alright?"**

**The St. Jimmy stick fell from his hand and he dropped onto his knees burying his hands in the cement as he began to sob against the ground. Everyone behind him stayed silent, having never seen their leader so brought down. He wouldn't be the same until she got back. **

**\-\**

****She looked up from her book as she heard someone step into the room. She saw him leaning against the doorframe watching her. He stood straight as she put her book down and flung herself off the table almost falling off. She pushed herself away from the table and ran over to him as he held open his arms to her. She ran into his arms and they wrapped around her as she nuzzled into his chest. It was just how she remembered. She was still his best friend, he remembered her, and he didn't fear her touch. He was taller then she remembered and he smelled slightly different but it was still familiar. His hands felt stronger then they had when they were younger as they fingered her shoulder blades gently. His muscles were more defined, she noticed, as she ran her hands up his abdomen and his chest. He gently let her go a little as she rested her hands on his chest. **

"**You look more masculine," Bonnie giggled. "I missed you. I'm so sorry I didn't write. I was having a hard time keeping up with schoolwork and running away from Fleur. It was a bit mind-boggling the past five years. I really wish I hadn't left. I missed you all so much. I saw Fish this morning, I suspect he was the one who told you I was home?'**

"**Yeah," was all he could say. He tucked one of her curls behind her ear and stared at her as she went quiet. His silence and staring was always a sure sign that you were supposed to stay quiet. He was thinking or watching you for something. Everyone knew that rule because his continual shushing when you interrupted would get on your nerves after a while. So she quieted her breath and thoughts as he watched her face quietly. In the letters Fish had sent her, she knew he only did this to his little group now. He wouldn't do it to any of his friends at school in fear of creeping them out and he wouldn't force them to follow his rules. He was a different person to them. Fish had admitted to her that it made him feel special. She knew it did the same to her. Being special in the eyes of St. Jimmy was a big thing for the group that had grown larger over the years she had been gone. **

**When he was finished looking her over, touching her face, her hair, her chin, he pulled her into another hug. Bonnie smiled and nuzzled into his shoulder taking in the scent of him. He was still the same, time keeping them the same even after the time passing. "I'm guessing you missed me a lot too huh?" she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt. **

"**So much." **

"**Are you doing okay?"**

"**Now that you're back home, with me. I'm perfectly fine." **

"**Good. You look different. You're taller then me," she smiled. **

"**It was bound to happen. God loves me, he gave me the superior height over you while you were gone."**

"**Ha ha," she laughed. "I couldn't believe what I saw when I read the newspaper. All the things you did in that school. With all the stuff we did in our school I thought you would play pranks. Not kill giant snakes and watch Voldemort come back to life."**

"**I didn't plan it. You know what the weird thing is? I wasn't myself in Hogwarts. Without you there and Fish in St. Brutis's I was left to make all new friends with people who probably knew more then I did. And I couldn't pick on teachers; they could kill me with a flick of their wand. It wasn't until after I had already shown people I was a simple; shy, little eleven year old…" Bonnie couldn't help but laugh sitting herself on the floor. "I know its funny right? Me, shy and all. Fish thought it was funny too." **

"**Come see my father before he leaves again. He'll be excited to see you. You'll be unhappy to know that I actually have problems now. My parents don't know I exist anymore. Father's so busy with his new job you know," she said. **

"**Sorry." **

"**That's okay. Sometimes he's home. And I still have Devil Nanny. She's a slut now." **

**\-\**

****Bonnie went up the stairs to Harry's room and walked up to the door. She had dressed nice for him and even refrained from putting on make up because she knew Harry hated it. She took a deep breath and quietly opened the door. Harry didn't look away from his wall. He obviously knew it was her. She was always quiet when he was painting. She walked over to his bed.**

**Bonnie crawled softly onto Harry's bed as he was painting. As a child she always loved to watch him paint. He didn't like to be disturbed but she didn't mind. She was quiet. When Harry painted, there wasn't any noise. It was quiet. His brush strokes were gentle. **

**Bonnie pulled her feet up onto the bed, setting her shoes on the floor, and pulled the pillow close to her. Snuggling herself into the pillow messing her perfect blond curls. **

**They both continued what they were doing for about an hour. Harry finished a small square of his wall, but it was perfect anyway. A small angel floating in the middle of nowhere for now. Perfect skin, perfect golden curls, and a golden halo just as Da Vinci had portrayed them. **

**Harry put the tarp up in front of it so you wouldn't see his unfinished work. He stamped his foot on the floor and all the tarps were gone. He turned around and crawled onto the bed to face her. They both smiled. "Hi," Harry said. **

"**Hi. What is the painting going to be?" she asked scooting closer to him. **

"**I don't know. Haven't decided yet. Haven't done big paintings like this since my art exhibit in New York. That was fun. I think that painting is still in the museum." **

"**I think so too. Oh and I brought some of your things. I highly doubt your parents will want to burn all of your awards and papers. Fish still has your guitar," she laughed. **

"**Hey, I was not that bad, I had to learn how to play it. They wanted to see if it was just the piano or if I could play other instruments." **

"**They were wrong," Bonnie laughed. **

"**Hey," Harry said jokingly shoving her arm. "I could play the violin, the **_**oboe**_**, the flute, though it wasn't my favorite of them all." **

"**Yes the **_**oboe**_** was a very sexy instrument," she laughed again. She rolled on her back giggling at the memory of the professors persuading Harry to play it. It had such a funny name and her and Harry had strange minds and ended up laughing uncontrollably the entire time. **

"**You think that's funny?" Harry asked starting to tickle her sides. She started to laugh harder and tried to squirm away. Harry moved over on top of her to stop her from getting away. **

"**Harry, stop!" Bonnie giggled, secretly thinking to herself that she didn't really want him to stop. **

"**You give?" Harry asked, continuing to tickle her. **

"**I give!" she laughed. Harry stopped and watched as Bonnie settled down from her giggle fit. He was still leaning over her, his hands on her waist. Their faces were closer and Bonnie couldn't help but lose her breath. His eyes were so pretty, as his hair fell against his long eyelashes. She could smell him; the familiar scent of him. Bonnie sighed, looking up at his eyes. She was waiting, for what she wasn't sure but she knew she was waiting for Harry to do something. In the back of her mind her thoughts were thinking exactly what she wanted. **_**Lean in, kiss me. Please kiss me. You've waited this long you dork. God, you're pretty St. Jimmy. Those stupid girls you've dated while I was gone have gotten to feel your beautiful soft pink lips on theirs, but you don't even love them. Why not me? Please kiss me. Kiss me! Kiss me! **_

**Harry looked down at her eyes. "I should take my medicine," he said quickly. Bonnie looked disappointed. That wasn't the something she was waiting for him to do. She nodded. Harry climbed off of her and moved over to his side table. **

**Bonnie sighed and pushed herself off the pillows to sit. **_**Stupid stupid stupid,**_** she thought,**_** he would never kiss you in a lifetime. He has prettier and **_**sexier**_** girls to kiss. Why would you ever think he would go after you? You're such an idiot. How could you be so stupid as to think he could kiss someone as stupid as you? **_

**She looked back at him as he picked up his phone. **_**God, St. Jimmy. You're too pretty for me to even sit next to you. Maybe I should just die. I'll never be enough for you.**_


	28. Sir Harry James Potter, Sir Saint Jimmy,

27

Sir Harry James Potter, Sir Saint Jimmy, the Chosen One, Our Savior

Bonnie stared at the ring, tears in her eyes. She sniffed and wiped at her eyes and her cheeks as she quietly cried, not knowing what to say.

Harry suddenly looked worried. "Bonnie, if you don't…. You don't have to…." He trailed off but he hated to see her cry like this. He just wanted her to be happy, not make her cry. "Bonnie—"

"Yes," she said quietly. She looked up at him now smiling madly as tears continued to fall onto her cheeks. She laughed slightly. "Yes, I'll marry you."

Harry smiled happily and took the ring out of the box. He took her hand and removed the promise ring and gracefully replaced it with the beautiful circle diamond ring.

She watched as he carefully took her fingers and slid the ring onto her ring finger; it was the perfect size. His finger brushed across the edge of the ring and she looked up at him to see him smiling at her. He leaned in and captured her lips lovingly again. Bonnie pressed her lips softly back onto his and he gently pulled her down on top of him, holding her face, stroking her cheeks. After a few seconds of loving kisses to each other there was an odd cough behind them. They both turned away from each other and looked up to see their friends smiling at them.

"Are we having fun?" Ron asked.

Bonnie carefully crawled off of Harry and stepped onto the floor as Harry scooted to sit at the end of the bed.

"What's with the happy reunion?" Ginny asked.

"Well um…" Harry looked up to Bonnie. She smiled at him. Harry looked back at them. "Bonnie and I are engaged."

There was silence for a second and they were all still smiling. Fish was the first to speak. "What?"

"Me and Bonnie are gonna get married," Harry said. "Fish, you knew this. You were there when I was buying the ring."

"But you said you would be seventeen. I thought you wouldn't purpose until you were seventeen and then get married the next summer. What are you both going to do about school? We just got out of a war and you both want to get married?"

"Fish!" Harry said, shocked. "We're getting married this summer, and we're still going to school. I guess. What's the problem?"

"You're sixteen years old. You just murdered a whole bunch of death eaters; the world still has a little chaos. Her father is going to kill you!"

"He already knows. I asked his blessing the same day I made the speech and the same day I bought the ring."

"You asked for my father's blessing?" Bonnie asked, smiling at him.

"Of course I did."

"Hey! Love birds!" Fish said. "I don't have any more excuses so you have to come over and give me a hug because I'm gonna start freaking out," he said, weeping.

"Oh Fish," Bonnie laughed, walking over and pulling him into a hug.

"Why are we all growing up so fast? You're going to get married and then before we know it, you'll be adopting children and we're all gonna grow apart. You'll both have your lives and we'll all still be at school. You both will be the only married couple in school." He started sobbing. "Harry won't be a _pure Christian_ anymore," he cried, way more then any man should about their friend losing their virginity.

"Why does this upset you?" Harry asked.

"Because that means you're not that innocent guy I knew who didn't understand what foreplay was until I explained it to you when you were fourteen."

Harry lowered his head embarrassedly. "Fish, nothing is going to change. Except that valid point you made and we'll be married and once we're out of school we'll get a house but so will everyone else."

Fish pulled away from Bonnie wiping his eyes. "Alright. I'll be okay with this. But if I start getting less action then _you_, I'm pulling the plug on your marriage."

Harry shook his head. "Are the rest of you okay?" Harry asked.

"I'm happy for you mate," Ron said, pulling him into a manly hug and patting him on the back.

"Thanks."

The girls started gabbing over the ring.

"You guys, I'm glad you're all happy but I would like for you all to keep this quiet around the parentals. I wanted them to be surprised."

"Oh Harry. Isn't this wonderful?" Bonnie said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I love you."

"I love you too." He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close again and into a soft kiss.

"Are you two always going to be like this now?" Ron whined.

"Harry!" They all turned to the door to see James, Sirius, Remus and Mad-Eye standing at the door. "Why aren't you still in bed?"

"Because I feel fine?" Harry asked.

"You just got out of a war. You were in horrible condition when we found you. You weren't breathing," James said loudly.

"But I'm breathing now."

"I'm getting healers to check you over."

"Fine."

James sighed and didn't seem to be heading to get healers. He walked over to his son and pulled him into a tight hug. "You scared me. If you're alive you're not supposed to stop breathing," he told Harry as he continued to hold him. He pulled away and looked his son over. "You sure you're okay? Physically and mentally."

"Perfect."

"You were never mentally perfect Harry, so obviously something went wrong," Fish claimed.

"You turd." He turned to his father. "So where is my sibling and what is it?" Harry asked with a smile.

"With your mother. Come on," he said, pulling his son along to leave the room. Harry grabbed Bonnie's wrist to pull her along behind him. Everyone else followed along.

They headed down the hall to Lily's room, which she had to herself for a now known reason. James walked in first to the very large room that wasn't near the size of Harry's but big enough since Lily hardly spent any time in here at all. She lay on her bed that was against the left wall near an open door. The wall across adjacent to it was a huge window where the sun was just still coming up.

Lily was lying against her pillows, her blankets pulled up to her waist as she held a beautiful baby in her arms. A nurse maid stood beside her bed, smoothing out her blankets. Lily looked up as they entered. James headed over to her and kissed her forehead and sat down beside her pillows while taking his babies hand.

"Harry dear," Lily said sweetly. "Come say hello to your new baby brother."

Harry smiled at her and headed over to humor her. He walked over and sat down by her knees on the bed.

"Do you want to hold him?" she asked.

"Me, hold him? Um… no that's okay," he smiled.

"Oh come on Harry. He's your brother. You have to be nice," Lily said happily, but her eyes were determined, saying that she would get Harry to do what she said.

"Okay," Harry sighed as Lily sat up and placed the baby in Harry's arms.

"Hold his head," Lily warned.

"I know." Harry looked down at his baby brother who slowly opened his eyes for him. "Don't pee on me okay?" Harry said, pointing a finger at him. "If you do, I will be very unforgiving when you're older." The baby took his finger and wrapped his small fist around it. Harry shook his finger. "Yes, that's so adorable," Harry said, sarcastically.

"Stop being so mean Harry," Lily said.

"What are you naming him?" Harry asked.

"Actually, we're naming him after your godfather. Sirius," James smiled.

Harry looked at Sirius and then at his mother. "You really let dad name him didn't you?"

"I'll regret my stupid decisions till the day I die a second time," Lily sighed.

Harry smiled at her and then looked down at his brother who was staring up at him with deep brown eyes. He then noticed his red hair. "Aww, the boy got mum's hair. The poor things going to look like Ron," Harry said.

"Hey!"

"Sorry Ron. But he doesn't look like a Sirius."

"We'll die his hair when he's older," Sirius smiled.

"You will do no such thing!" Lily yelled. "He'll have red hair and be happy about it."

"Potter!" They all looked up at the door where Madam Pomfrey was standing with potions. "Give the baby back to your mother and get back to your room."

"Why, I feel perfectly fine."

"That's because we filled you with pain relief potion. It's going to wear off soon," she said, walking over to him. She took the baby from his arms as he opened his mouth to protest. She handed the baby off to James and grabbed Harry's arm to drag him toward the door.

"I'll escape again later," Harry said as he was dragged through the door.

Bonnie turned to Harry's parents. "We'll be downstairs checking on everyone and telling them Harry's fine." She headed out of the door trying to make sure she hid the diamond ring on her finger. The others followed.

\-\

Two days later….

Fish ran through the door pulling Bonnie with him and quickly jammed it shut behind him as some banging hands ran against the door. They both looked up to see Harry standing by his window looking at them questioningly. "What?"

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" Bonnie asked.

"Madam Pomfrey filled me up with pain potions. If I'm in my room and she's not here why not make use of the time?" he asked thoughtfully. "What are you two doing up here? Who's banging at the door?"

"Reporters. Don't you watch the TV? The Queen has made an announcement that the evil man, that the muggles have now named _just _Voldemort, has been deemed dead. And the Minister of Magic had made an announcement that he-who-must-not-be-named is dead and isn't coming back this time. And they both announced how it was you who defeated him, for the second time the Minister said, and how your little crew helped in other countries battling death eaters. They're being awfully nice to us. We're getting money from the Minister. But the Queen wants you knighted."

"That's great. What does this have to do with the banging on the door?"

"Oh, those are the reporters that got into your house because they want to know exactly what happened. How you killed him, how you're feeling, all that crap."

"Well you can tell them I'm not saying anything. And if the _Daily Prophet _is out there you can tell them to screw themselves. And you can tell them it came personally from my mouth."

"You're extra crabby today. You don't even care that you're going to be knighted."

"They have me on a whole bunch of drugs so I can't feel anything. Even emotion. Sorry," he said, not sounding it in the least bit. He headed back over to his desk; limping they noticed, on one leg, and took another vile of pain relief potion. "I'll be addicted to these damb things for the rest of my life. I took many over the summer and now I'll be taking them for the rest of this summer. They need to think of something else to feed me. Oh! And Madam Pomfrey says I have done serious damage to my leg and will, at least till we get to school; have to put a spell on it daily. And until it seeps in I will have to walk with a cane. Doesn't that sound fun? I'll be the only seventeen year old walking around school with a cane. And I'll be damned if I have to stand with one at our wedding," he said angrily, smashing the glass vile on the floor.

Bonnie walked over to him slowly as he stood angrily. She gently pulled him into her arms and gently ran her hand into his hair as he settled into her neck. Harry gently fell to his knees when his bad one gave out and hugged her waist. "I don't want to walk with a cane Bonnie," he whined, clutching her shirt.

"I know darling but, it's only for a short time." She kneeled on the floor in front of him and placed her forehead against his. "Soon enough you'll be back to normal and everything will be fine. You know what we'll do? Where's the St. Jimmy stick."

"It's being polished. It had a lot of blood on it," Harry said, lowering his head in shame. It was still painful to remember the things he saw and he was trying to block as much of it out as he could.

"No, it just came back," Fish said, "Avin is dragging it upstairs for you."

"He's not scratching it is he?"

"It's wrapped in bubble wrap from the shining place. I made him do it so that he could scare the reporters on his way to the room when he made it up this far."

Bonnie turned back to Harry. "Well, when he gets up here we can use the St. Jimmy stick to be your new cane."

"We'll just fashion a new end," Fish added helpfully. "You carry it around with you everywhere anyway and you would want your trusty stick with you at the wedding anyway right? So what's the difference?"

"I guess that could work. We'll call it the St. Jimmy Cane for a little while I guess."

Bonnie smiled and pulled him into a hug, running her fingers through his hair. "It's the end of the war. Things can only get better from here, right? You've defeated Voldemort, he can't bother you anymore, you have a new baby brother who is happy and healthy, your parents are fine and so are all your friends and we're going to get married. This is just one bad out of the many good things to come out of this. And it can only get better, right?"

Harry nodded, nuzzling into her shoulder.

"Will someone please let me in? I'm being attacked out here. Shove off you bloody wankers," said Avin through the door.

"Harry, go stand over there," Fish said as he was preparing to open the door. Bonnie stood up and pulled Harry up with her and gently took him over toward the bathroom where the reporters wouldn't see them. Fish slowly opened the door a crack and Avin's arm came through the door holding the St. Jimmy stick. Fish took it, said thank you and Avin left again as Fish closed the door. You could hear him threatening the reporters through the door.

The reporters came back a few minutes after.

Fish wandered over to Harry. "Do your parents know about your... um…."

"No, they haven't been to see me yet. And I suspect they won't get through today with all the reporters."

Surprisingly that was when they heard new voices outside the door. "You people don't get out off my house I have seventeen aurors here ready to arrest you. Now get away from my son's bedroom." There were many more feet behind the door and then a lot of yelling about how the public had a right to know. Harry's father didn't sound happy at all. The door burst open and then burst closed again as soon as James was inside. "Bloody reporters." He turned to his son and his friends. "Harry! How are you doing? Feeling any better?"

"I've gotten worse. I have a limp," he said walking forward. "We're going to make the St. Jimmy stick into a cane. I always used to walk with it anyway."

"Well just till school. At least it's not permanent right?" James said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I have to sit down," he said, limping over to his bed and sitting down. "By the way, has anyone gotten me Voldemort's ashes yet?"

"You were serious about that?" Fish asked.

"I told you before I'm going to feed him to his still living death eaters once I've captured them."

"I think they're all dead mate."

"Then I'll put it in a jar and carry it around with me. Then he'll know what it feels like to be trapped in a jar with your body parts staying in tact being a decision of the person who's watching you."

"I told you something went wrong mentally," Fish mumbled to Bonnie, who replied by smacking his head. "I had Tim and Tom go and collect it anyway. They're still downstairs."

"Will you have them bring it up to me now that the reporters are gone?"

"Sure. I'll be right back." Fish headed out of the room and headed downstairs.

James sat down next to his son. "You really wanna have Voldemort's ashes around you?"

"I killed him; I should be able to do whatever I want with his ashes," Harry said, as though it were obvious.

James just nodded agreeably.

"Does anyone know where my cell phone went?" Harry asked. "I seemed to have dropped it at one point."

"I believe Sirius picked it up while he and Remus were heading to the Queen's hiding space."

"Bonnie, could you please go get it from him and call the nearest non-worshiping _me_ priest?"

"Of course. I'll go find Sirius." She went over and kissed his cheek and then left the room closing the door to leave James alone with his son.

Harry put his face in his hands, running his fingers into his hair. James put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright Harry?"

"Dad, could you do something for me?" Harry asked, lifting his head.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Can you buy me a private therapist?" he asked, looking his father in the eye.

"A—"

"I saw so many people. I don't even remember half of the people I killed in there. I blacked it all out it was all happening so fast. When it was finally over and I had killed Voldemort I sat down against a wall and when I looked to my side I see Nott, this boy from school. He was dead, with his eyes open and I just kept thinking he was only my age and I took his life away. I didn't even stop to think about it first, it was all instinct. I can't believe I could kill that many people out of instinct."

"Harry its okay. They're all death eaters and they would have ended up in Azkaban anyway. Probably gotten the Dementor's kiss."

"He was sixteen. He could have given up his life of evil and lived out his young life happily."

"You think way too much of people Harry. I highly doubt he would have given up on the Dark Lord just because you spared his life. Most of his followers were used to near death experiences anyway."

"He probably just joined. They don't until they're at least sixteen. We all just turned sixteen. He wasn't even of age and I killed him and probably many others."

"Harry, he was a death eater either way. It's not like you feel bad for killing Voldemort."

"Well I said sorry before I killed him. And Nott was younger and he never did anything to me."

"You said sorry to Voldemort before you killed him?"

"It was a last parting goodbye. He may have made my life miserable but if it wasn't for him a lot of good things that happened to me wouldn't have happened. But he had to die so…"

"Well I'm sure Nott is fine. If he really was a good person at heart he's probably in heaven now right? And if he had stayed alive he probably would have been prosecuted for being a death eater and hauled into Azkaban anyway. And if not he always would have been remembered as one anyway and reminded by that tattoo on his arm. You didn't do anything horrible Harry. They all deserved what they got."

"I killed Voldemort. I murdered him and he lost his life. He deserved that because he did horrible things. Did Nott really deserve the same fate when he did nothing nearly as bad as Voldemort did?"

James ran out of excuses to tell his son. "I'll get you a therapist."

"Thanks," Harry said, looking back at the floor.

"Harry?" James asked.

"Hmm?"

"You're going to be okay though right?" he asked. "You're not going to start checking the salt shakers for tiny cameras are you?" Harry looked at him confused. "I was watching the history channel. World War II." Harry nodded and smiled.

"No, I'm not going to do that."

"Good." He wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulder and pulled him close. He stroked back Harry's bangs from his forehead as Harry sighed into his father's shoulder, content with the warm comfort his father gave him. "For the time being, while I search for this therapist who's not going to worship you at the moment, you should think of other things to take your mind off the war. It's over and you should think of the good things that are happening right now."

"Like what?" Harry asked, closing his eyes.

"Like what you're going to say when you propose to your dear Bonnie."

"It's already been done. I purposed to her two days ago. I didn't tell you because I wanted you and everyone to figure it out on your own. But you're too slow so I'm telling you now."

"Oh," he said, trying to seem unsurprised.

"It's okay. Fish wasn't very happy that we're getting married so young. He wants me to continue being his virgin friend. For whatever odd reason I don't know."

"Ah. Well then think about the wedding you're going to have with your beautiful Irish lady. Think about all the stuff you can do by taking advantage of your new and alarming fame." He gasped. "We could sue your uncle in a case that only takes three minutes!"

"I'm not suing Uncle Vernon dad. It's immoral," he said, snuggling into his shoulder as though he were about to fall asleep again. He was thinking about it. All this thinking was making him very tired.

"No it's not. What he did to you was immoral. Cameron told me you once said they had tried to poison you."

"I was a stupid five-year-old, I was a little paranoid. I didn't know what I was talking about," he sighed.

"I saw the bruises once Harry. Even that was enough to file for abuse," he pointed out. "And that small room they kept you in with the locks on the door. It was creepy and—"

"Dad," Harry interrupted, "I know you're having fun thinking about how you can get revenge on my uncle but I don't want to talk about this right now. It's not as comforting to me as it is to you."

"But it's not my revenge it'll be yours."

"Dad. Please?" he asked, quietly to silence the conversation.

James sighed. "Alright. I'm sorry," he said, running his hand through Harry's hair again. Harry sighed tiredly and snuggled into James's shoulder more trying to get comfortable. James just noticed this. "Are you tired?" he laughed slightly.

"No," he lied, knowing that if he said yes his father would tell him he should get back in bed and go to sleep.

"Mm-hmm," he hummed, smiling slightly. He went along with it and continued to sit there with him, holding him in his arm as Harry finally found a comfortable spot on his shoulder and waited till he fell asleep. When his breathing slowed and he was fast asleep James stood and readjusted Harry into his bed so that he was lying down on his pillows. He tucked him in and ran his hand back into his hair while placing a kiss on his forehead. He then let his fingers drift over his son's hair before he walked away and left the room to inform Bonnie and—when he returned—Fish, that Harry was asleep. Then he would head back upstairs, out of the crowd of people in his living room who were speaking foreign languages, and go visit his other son, who had no idea what was going on at the moment.

\-\

Harry stood outside in the rain, alone. He looked up at the sky where the clouds looked as though they weren't going to move anytime soon. They had a business to stay sitting above Harry for a while and they had already started two hours ago. They were floating above him, dark and plump, full of rain. Giving him a reason not to talk to anyone, all who seemed afraid of the rain. He had finally spoken to his other followers and they had headed home to their countries and families to spread stories of how Harry had finally defeated Voldemort and what a wonderful person he was. That was why a week ago Harry had received news that he was going to be knighted next week—in a large ceremony in front of the whole world. It was his life's dream since he was five years old; and suddenly, after all that had happened, it hardly seemed like something he deeply wanted anymore. At the moment, he just wanted to sit in the rain and feel the water pressure force his hair down knowing it would never stay like that after it dried and be happy about it.

So he sat down on the cement, in the middle of the driveway he didn't know his house had; since it didn't have a car, and he placed a large glass jar in front of him that was filled with what looked like dirt. The rain hit it and shot off like a lightning bolt and Harry swore he could see the light flashing like a falling star and made you swear you could make wishes on them.

He didn't care that his mother was watching him anxiously from the porch with his future wife and his little brother, nor that his father was contacting therapists as they spoke, nor that all of his twenty-two closest friends were sitting at his dining room table eating lunch with Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and Jackeline. He knew it all was happening behind or outside the walls but he hardly took notice of it as he continued to stare at the jar of ash in front of him.

He put a small force field around himself to protect him from the rain and suddenly opened the glass container that held the last piece of Voldemort—his only enemy who made his life what it was today, which wasn't all that bad compared to some people.

He stuck his hand into the ashes and lifted a handful out and let it sift through his fingers like sand until it all fell back into the container. He sighed and grabbed his wand from his coat pocket and placed it in the jar. He closed the top and lifted it into his hands and looked at it as though he were looking to the other side. He then shook it up and down as though he were making a margarita while hoping nothing broke and when he stopped all the ashes had disappeared. He slowly set the jar back on the ground and lifted the top open to take out his wand. He grabbed a crook in his wand and pulled down as though he were opening a scroll, which it turned out he was. It read:

_**To my dear Harry, **_

_**I know this is strange, me being your arch foe and you being mine and all, but I thought a bit of parting words were in order. First of all, obviously I am dead if you are getting this letter, you wouldn't believe how many spells I've put on myself in case of death. Better safe then sorry I guess. Anyway, now that I am dead, I am afraid I was so caught up in taking over the pathetic world that, like you said, I never found a mate. So that leaves me with all this Slytherin inheritance and no one to heir it to. So since the only people I know are my death eaters I hardly have anyone to give the money to. I know you killed them all so you should know why I say this. So instead of giving to some poor orphans like a human being I'm going to be the two year old, reincarnation of who I once was and give the money to someone who doesn't deserve it and will use it for own personal gain. You. **_

_**I will understand if you are not accepting to this idea of mine but I really have nothing else to do with it. So you can be the good boy and give it to the self loving orphans who will no doubt turn out like me one day; and got help from you because you made them rich **_**and **_**cocky. But in the meantime it's yours to keep. If you say the words Tom Riddle's key while pointing your wand at the letter, the key to my vault will appear to you. It goes to all seventeen different vaults. I'm sure your family has almost the same amount but this is yours to use selfishly. You won fair and square; you have the right to it. I'm getting too righteous so I'm moving to the next point. **_

_**I'm also leaving you my snake Nagini. I'm sure her and your own snake, Prose, I believe you called him, will get along famously. Think of her as a much delayed or quite early birthday present for your seventieth birthday. If she gets on your nerves too much just kill her; she will come back to me. She will be sitting next to you once you finish this letter. She is been my only close friend, my only confidant, since I was thirteen years old so you had better take special care of her.**_

_**As for anything else, tell Draco he would have made a hell of an heir if he had not defied me. He got the mark and he never came to the meetings and Lucius tells me he was yelling at him. I have a feeling Draco will end up killing his father if you do not. If he does not and you have not yet, please do so as quickly as possible, he got on my nerves. He was such a kiss-ass. It is so hard to be the leader of a cult. **_

_**Anyway, if you have any questions that you wished you could have asked but—you know—I was trying to kill you, you can always ask Nagini. She may have some juicy gossip with her. **_

_**I am glad you inherited my gifts, or at least some of them. Especially parseltongue, as I could not leave Nagini with someone who could not ever talk to her. Snakes get depressed that way. And if you were not the Slytherin I know you should have been I would not have left you with all my money. You are very lucky you are my favorite enemy. You are much more exciting then that old man Dumbledore. I get to watch as you suffer through what you hate most in life for another 70, 80 years: your fame and celebrity. It'll be so fun for me. (Though the money will help you get out of sticky situations. People will do anything if you pay them.)**_

_**Those are my parting words and, even if I feared death, this is probably the best way to go. By a worthy opponent. **_

_**Your favorite Dark Lord**_

_**And secret friend and financier,**_

_**Lord Voldemort**_

Harry was surprised by the words but couldn't get over how sentimental they were. Bonnie was still on search for his priest to confess his sins to and his father was still looking for a therapist but this letter may have been the closure he needed. He still needed closure with Nott but he didn't think killing him would ever be completely acceptable to him. It wasn't something he would be able to do.

Harry slowly looked to his side to find Voldemort's snake Nagini sitting next to him. Bonnie was standing up on the porch with her wand ready to attack it if it attacked Harry. Harry just stared into the snake's eyes as Nagini did the same to him.

"You want to be with your master don't you?" Harry asked knowingly in parseltongue. They had spent a very long time together so it would make sense she would. Nagini only nodded sadly. "I'll send you to him; but I just have one question to ask if you don't mind." She nodded again, waiting patiently. "Why'd he choose me?"

Nagini, if it was possible for a snake, gave him a small, knowing smile. "I thought he told you. He wanted a suitable component," she said, her slithering voice sounding amused.

"But… I was a baby. Wouldn't he guess that the worthy opponent would be the pureblood?" Harry asked.

"Voldemort, as you know was not a pureblood. It wasn't that he wanted someone he knew was like him, or that he would end up killing you in the end anyway because you're a half-blood, it was the fact that being who he was, he knew that half-bloods were more susceptible to power then purebloods. All that marrying your own family clogs up the lines. When your father ended up marrying your mother and having you, he knew the line had been opened up and you would be open to all the power that had skipped all those generations of late purebloods. He knew you would probably kill him off at his first try but he liked that risk."

"Oh. Wow," Harry said, feeling almost unconvinced but he knew he was. It made a lot of sense. "I know I said one but I have another question." Nagini nodded patiently. _No wonder Voldemort loved his snake. She's very patient,_ Harry thought. "Well, I know it's something everyone wants to ask but… why did he want to kill off a line of people he knew would include himself?"

"Because he was ashamed of his heritage. But when he met you he made it a thing to like half-bloods, they were more powerful then anyone else; Pure-bloods and muggleborns together. But he had already started something he decided he had to finish it. But he told me that he was going to pretend that he was fighting for a world ruled by half-bloods, not purebloods. Why do you think he tortured his followers more then he tortured you?"

Harry could only nod, stunned by this thought. He looked Nagini in the eye again. "I guess that's all. Do you uh, want me to…?" He trailed off holding his wand.

"No it's fine. I can do it myself. I hope you have a great life Harry. And don't worry too much about all the people. You did the right thing whether you feel bad or not."

"Thanks. I hope death is something you get to enjoy," he smiled, the first one he had let out since he proposed.

"Thank you." She closed her eyes and her body slowly slipped onto the ground before him as though she was going to sleep. He slightly nudged her but she didn't move. That was when she moved on, she went to be with her master, probably her first and only friend. Harry waved his hand over her very large, coiled up body and it disappeared off the cement.

He felt someone walk up behind him and noticed from the shoes that it was Bonnie. She kneeled down beside him in the rain, her hair dripping rain from her soaking head. "Harry, are you alright? Why was that large snake here?"

"That was Nagini. She died of loneliness so she could go be with her master. She came to me so I could ask her a question," Harry said, staring at the spot where she had been seconds before.

"What did you ask her?"

Harry turned to face her, smiling happily at her. "That's not important love," he said gently. "What is important is that I love you, and you love me. Right?" Bonnie nodded, not able to help the small smile rising off her lips. Harry gently pulled her into a loving kiss while he stroked her cheek. When he pulled away he slipped the letter from Voldemort into his inside coat pocket and closed the glass jar. "Let's go inside. I want to tell Prose how much I love him," he smiled.

Bonnie laughed. "Okay." Harry grabbed her hand and his St. Jimmy stick—now cane—with his other hand and took the shield off himself before he dragged her up to the porch. "I'd give you a hug mum, but I'm all wet," he said stroking his brother's almost bald head. "I'm gonna go talk to Prose." She nodded confused but happy that Harry seemed to be feeling better.

Harry headed inside and quickly headed upstairs to his room, losing Bonnie somewhere along the way. He entered his room and looked around for Prose. He hissed out his name and he suddenly came tiredly slithering out from under his bed. Harry's smile brightened again. He ran over to him and picked him up while throwing himself onto his bed. "Guess what Prose?"

"I don't know master. What has you so excited?" he asked, pretending to be enthralled.

"I love you Prose," Harry smiled.

"That's wonderful master," Prose said, sarcastically.

"You _are_ a grumpy snake. Don't you love me too Prose?"

"I love you ever so much master," he said dully, resting his head on Harry's elbow.

"I know you do, I just wanted you to say it with feeling. I didn't get it." Harry set him down on the bed and turned his back to Prose and sulked like a little kid.

"Oh come on. You don't think I'll fall for the cold shoulder. I'm way colder then you are," Prose said as though he didn't care. Then a few seconds with Harry continuing to pout, it was enough to get Prose to slither up onto his lap and look up at Harry with his small black eyes. "Master," he hissed, trying to sound sad since he couldn't make his own pouty face. "I love you master." He slithered over Harry's thigh and lifted Harry's hand onto his head. Harry looked down at him and smiled. He slid his hand over Prose's scaly skin, almost a soothing motion.

"See Prose, you can be sweet like a puppy dog. And I like you much better anyway. We can have conversations and you tell me when I sound stupid and you're not too fluffy. You're quiet and calming and very sarcastic. Everything I want in a snake."

"Oh please master, you're going to make me cry," he said in a monotone and Harry had to smile again.

Harry sighed and lay back on his bed and set Prose on his stomach. "Prose, will you come with me when I get knighted. I'll have my dad there and Bonnie and all my friends but I'll also have the entire world there to watch me. You're the only one I feel isn't going to judge me about this."

"I'll come with you master, if it pleases you. It's getting tiring to sit in the house all day anyway."

"Good, and when I'm knighted, please don't call me Sir Harry or anything. I deny you the right to it."

"Yes sir."

"We should find Nam. He's so small he seems to have disappeared from us."

Harry spent the next hour searching for Nam, and when Nam was found Harry found himself overly exhausted as though he had run a great length. "Maybe Madame Pomfrey wasn't being overbearing when she said I should take it easy. Moving is so tiring. I'll never make it for my knighting ceremony." He slowly limped over to his bed and before he could make it to climb onto his bed he passed out and fell on the floor.

"Master?" Prose asked worriedly. "Master?"

All he got in response was a groan as Harry lay on the floor.

Prose slithered around the bedpost and went to lie beside him. "Master," he hissed worriedly. Hopefully someone would come in soon to check on him.

\-\

An hour later, Bonnie headed upstairs to check on him and to ask if he was coming to dinner with everyone. She quietly knocked first before inviting herself in and entering. "Harry, I just wanted to know if—" She stopped quickly when she saw him lying on the floor. "Harry!" She quickly ran over and kneeled beside him. "Harry, wake up. Mr. Potter!" she yelled, trying to shake him gently to wake him up but it wasn't working. "Harry, please wake up. You're freaking me out," Bonnie whined.

James entered the room followed by Sirius. "What's wrong?"

"I think Harry passed out. He won't wake up," Bonnie said. She quickly stepped away as James came over. He kneeled over his son and waved his wand over Harry's face whispering, "Enervate."

Harry slowly came to and lifted his head. "Oww," he whined quietly putting his hand on the back of his head.

"Did you hit the floor?" James asked.

"I think I tired myself out. Stupid Madame Pomfrey, she had to be so fucking right all the time," he groaned, setting his head on the floor again.

"Well it's not her fault you didn't follow her orders. You slow down from now on," James ordered. "Are you going to be okay? Maybe you should go back to bed. I'll have someone bring up your dinner."

"That's alright. I'm not hungry," Harry said, pushing himself off the floor. "I'll just go back to bed and pass out again," he said, sitting down on his bed.

James nodded but Bonnie interrupted.

"I think you're fine," Bonnie said. Everyone looked over to her and Harry gave an angry and confused look.

"I just passed out on the floor. I doubt it."

"Well you've probably been lying on the floor for a little while now, haven't you? Maybe you've gotten all the rest you need and you actually need to get up and about for a little while. I mean, the only times you've actually left your room was to stare at Voldemort's ashes in the rain. You're starting to sound a little insane and it's really beginning to freak me out," Bonnie said, her voice sounding angry toward the end of her speech. The three just stared at her almost scared. Bonnie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Could you please leave Harry and I alone for a minute? I need to speak to him," she asked Sirius and James.

"Sure. You're his fiancé," James said, stepping away and pulling Sirius with him toward the door.

Once they were gone Bonnie turned back to Harry who continued to look around his room. "Harry, please look at me," she said and Harry turned to her. "What's going on with you? I thought you'd be all over this. All your friends staying in your house together, you've won the war, and even though you're famous you shouldn't be acting like this."

"Acting like what?" Harry asked stupidly.

"Like you've suddenly found your place in the mental institution!" she said angrily. "You don't come out of your room; you sit here all day and don't talk to anyone but Prose. You sit sadly in the rain and talk to Voldemort's ashes and his dead snake and then you come back up here and pass out on your floor. I know you're upset about the war and I know it's depressing but that's no reason to go insane. It's scaring me. You're not the only one who was in the war. All your friends were there to, and so was I." She sat down on the bed next to him and looked into his eyes. "Why are you acting like this?" she asked, stroking his bangs from his hair.

Harry looked down at his knees. "Bonnie, how many people would you say you killed when you were fighting with Fish and the others."

"I don't know I didn't count. Maybe twelve, I guess."

"And Fish? About the same right?"

"Maybe a few more," she answered, confused about the questions.

"I've been having these flashbacks of the night I killed Voldemort and all and I think I now remember every single person I killed. I kind of …blacked out, sometimes when I was fighting so I had lost track of time while I was there. I was confused when Voldemort told me it was night when I thought that only a few hours had passed instead of several. It was because I blocked out what I was doing while I was doing it. But now I remember it all. And I guess I am going a little insane because, I started writing down all the names when I remembered them dying, careful not to repeat anyone. And do you want to know how many people are on that list?"

"Okay," she said, patiently.

"One hundred and fifty-two. And the really depressing part is that I actually knew all of their names. I knew every one of the people that I killed."

"Sweetie, I know you may be depressed because of that but I know it's not the reason you're keeping yourself locked up in your bedroom. Even if you were depressed, which I can safely say you are a bit, you would not keep yourself from your friends or family. You would be worshiping the ground they walk on because they're all still alive. That's the way you are. You can't hide it from me Harry, I know you."

Harry looked away from her and turned over to curl up in a ball on his bed. Bonnie rolled her eyes and crawled over to him. "Kumquat," she said quietly, more patient then she was before. She ran her fingers gently through his hair as she watched him. "Baby, please tell me what's wrong. I don't like to watch you being sad."

"Mm, w-k," Harry mumbled into his pillow.

"What?"

"I said, I'm weak," he repeated, moving away from the pillow. "I've always been this strong person that they all look up to. They think I can deal with anything and that I'm always going to be strong and indestructible. But now I have this stupid leg and i- it's broken and I look so weak because of it," he said, hiding his face in his pillow, ashamed.

Bonnie couldn't help but smile even though her love was in pain. "You are such a little weirdo," she said, trying not to giggle. She ran her hand into Harry's hair again. "Harry, your friends may see you like that, even I must admit that I sometimes see you that. My strong, invincible St. Jimmy. But one limp is not going to make them think any less of you."

"Yes it is. I'm a total weakling and I'll stay in my room till it's completely healed."

"What about our wedding?" Bonnie yelled.

"We'll have it here in my room."

Bonnie looked unconvinced. She sighed and lay back on the bed beside him. He snuggled into her shoulder and clung to her arm as he tried to fall asleep.

"You know that, you continuously staying up in your room and hiding from everyone and talking to your enemy's ashes just makes it seem as though you have been destructed and is just afraid to face everyone. You don't want them all to think you're frail and scared do you?"

Harry's eyes shot open. "They wouldn't think that," he said, placing a kiss on the arm he was clinging to.

"You were just convincing me that they would," she pointed out.

Harry sighed and groaned before letting go of her arm and rolling to the other side of the bed. "Could you go get my now_ evil cane_?"

Bonnie smiled and leaned in to place a kiss on his neck. "I love you," she said happily.

"Yeah, I love you to," he said grudgingly as she went to get his cane. He took it from her and stood up with it. Bonnie took his other hand and led him out of his room. They headed down stairs, taking the longest on the stairs but making it down at a decent time. They walked into the dining room as Mrs. Weasley, Lily, and the maids were helping set the table with food. They all looked up at Harry and Bonnie when they walked in. All the Suburban Children's jaws dropped at the sight of Harry limping toward them along with the few members of the order that were there. "If one of you makes a crack at my cane I'll whack you over the head with it," Harry threatened. They all nodded in agreement. Harry took his seat where he usually sat as it was left open and Bonnie sat beside him. He hooked his cane on the arm of the chair.

"I'm glad you made it down sweetheart," Lily said, kissing his head as she set a tray of food in front of him.

"Yes, so what is everyone else doing after school? Whenever we go back that is," Harry asked.

"Joining a band; after I get emancipated of course! I've given up my dream of being the neighborhood burglar," Fish said.

"Parents haven't come back yet?"

"No. I think they've joined your aunt and uncle in anarchy, which is weird for them since they've always been striving for normal. I think the clashing made them go insane."

"When were they sane?" Harry asked, suspiciously.

The table went into silent thought for a few moments.

"Hey St. Jimmy," Avin said. Harry turned to him. "I like the cane. It's very refined," he said, directing conversation somewhere else.

"Thanks Avin," Harry laughed. "Did you, Ial, and Oye get full during the battle?"

"Oye didn't. Some vampire! He hid in a corner and ate what I threw at him."

"It's not my fault you didn't train me well enough," Oye said, looking down at the table.

"It's Ial's job. She wanted you."

"Not again," Ial whined. "Would you boys stop fighting? You're getting on my last nerve with your whiney crap." Both boys groaned and Ial smiled. "So Bonnie, when are we going to start planning this wedding of yours?"

"Um, I don't know. Harry?" Everyone looked to him.

"Oh, well whenever you want I guess. I thought we would have the wedding after we turned seventeen but before went back to school."

"Well you don't have to worry about timing. Some of the boys and I have already started planning some of it out for you," Fish said. "We've picked out a few cathedrals in Ireland for you to choose from and priests that aren't worshiping you and we chose your favorites. Your wedding should be pretty easy to plan shouldn't it?"

"Why do you say that? And I thought you were angry about our getting married?" Harry asked.

"I'm not angry about you getting married, I'm angry because you won't be your special virgin self anymore. And it'll be easy to plan your wedding because you probably already know exactly what your flowers will be, you know kind of where it's going to be, and…"

"Weddings are more complicated then that Fish," Lily pointed out. "You have a dress to buy, shoes to buy, people to invite, _guards_ to hire, a church, a hall for the reception, a way to get all your guests to Ireland if that's where you're having it. The list goes on."

"We'll get it done by then. Getting everyone to Ireland won't be hard. We'll just use group Portkeys. Invites will be hard though."

"So true. We just have so many friends," Bonnie smiled.

"Are you both sure you want to get married before you even finish school?" Sirius asked. "Before either of you have any jobs."

"We have jobs," Bonnie said. "It's not like Harry could be an auror now. Not with the fame thing."

"I don't think I'll ever get a job. I'll just live on my money I made as a young prodigy."

"How much money could you have possibly made as a child," Lily asked.

"Um, well I sold two large paintings: One for two million American dollars and the other for nine million pounds. And then I sold some smaller paintings for some other money."

"People paid nine million pounds for your paintings?" Remus asked.

"I am a very great artist. And some people are so rich they don't know what to do with their money," he said turning to his parents.

"What?" James asked. "We just let our money sit in the vault for future generations. You can have that money when we die," James smiled.

"I'll be only seven years younger then you when you die again," Harry pointed out. "I doubt I'll need it."

"And if we ever do run out of money I'll cure AIDs or something," Bonnie said.

"If you have the power shouldn't you cure it just because you can and not wait till you can get the money?" Hermione asked.

"I tried doing that once and the government took my cure away and is keeping it away from the public."

"What did you cure? Harry told me about the government taking your projects," James said.

"I'm not allowed to tell. I'll be arrested."

"Not now. No one will arrest Harry's future wife," Sirius pointed out, pouring some wine for him and Jackeline.

"Well, I carried a lot of weird things in my back pack and thought that maybe I would be creative that day. I really didn't care what teachers thought so I ended up, unknowingly, creating a antidote to the draught of death."

"Don't they already have one?" Sirius asked.

"No! Well, it may be the one I made. I won't get any credit because I was eight when I made it."

"That's sad," Ron commented.

"Yes well, I'll make my own potions now and the government won't do anything to take it away from me. And then we'll get money for it. Then the Potter family will surely be the richest family."

\-\

After dinner everyone went back to their rooms, everyone was staying there until further notice. After his parents had headed off to their own room or maybe to visit the baby, Harry snuck into the hallway and headed to Bonnie's room, which was practically next door. He snuck in and snuck over to her as best he could when it was dark. Obviously she was already asleep. He crawled onto her bed and laid down beside her. "Bonnie," he whispered.

"Hmm?" she hummed tiredly.

"I'm sorry for being such a prick lately. I just went a little weird after the war. I should have handled it better. I'm sorry I ignored you."

"It's alright Harry. You deserve to be a prick at least once in your life," she said, cuddling over to him and snuggling into the side of his chest. "As long as you're not like that forever, I'll still marry you."

Harry smiled at her and wrapped his arms around her as they both got more comfortable. "Do you want to get married before we go back to school?"

"I've waited this long just to be your girlfriend St. Jimmy. I'd wait forever to be your wife," she mumbled before falling to sleep.

Harry watched her sleep quietly on his shoulder while he thought over the wedding. He wanted to marry her so badly he wanted to do it as quickly as possible. He wanted to know now that Bonnie was his forever and that there was proof of it. But then again he didn't want to push it along too fast. He knew Bonnie deserved a beautiful wedding that was well planned and well thought-out and perfect for both of them and at a perfect time. And particularly not while Harry was more famous then anyone in the world couldn't even think to wish to be: the wedding would be in every newspaper and every language around the world, his fan club would go mad (not that he cared but they're dangerous), the reporters would be insane, the people helping to plan their wedding would be insane, the people who would like to be invited but don't even know them would be insane. Maybe it wasn't the best timing.

He looked down at the peaceful face of the girl he loved more then anything in the world. If she was able to wait patiently and he was able to wait patiently then maybe that was a good sign that they should. He sighed to tiredness and kissed Bonnie on her head before falling asleep beside her.

\-\

Even the Queen was bowing now. He was so struck by his own fame he couldn't even gain the urge to roll his eyes and just bow back at them. He only stood there and took it till the Queen finally stood up everyone followed so they could cheer.

Harry felt like it was all a dream it was so surreal. Who could imagine themselves living the life of a God on earth? Everyone bowing and scraping and praising the very ground you walk on. It wasn't fascinating to Harry, it was scary and he now cursed the day it became his dream to be knighted. Why did he want that? He was standing in front of the entire country, again, only this time he didn't have to give a speech. Why did he put himself in this position? He didn't want it.

He thanked God when he got to leave the stage and the most honorary of politicians, who he was now a part of, were invited inside. (Wizard politicians were included. People were slowly trying to budge the two together, starting with discriminatory political parties.)

Harry kept Bonnie on his arm; Fish and Ron close, along with four large guards that were a must five minutes after Harry stepped onto the street to the palace. He couldn't step out of a car for three seconds without someone asking for his autograph or trying to steal his arm. He was waiting for the assassination attempts to begin.

People in very expensive suits kept coming up to him, probably dressed by someone they paid, and his guards made a tighter crowd behind him as though preparing themselves for an attack by the man who wants to know how Harry feels about his fame while he stuttered throughout his entire one question. He was sixteen and he made a politician, one that made thousands of speeches in his lifetime, stutter his way through one question, listen to the answer, bow, and nervously walk away to brag to the other politicians that he talked to the Savior.

"While we're bored," Fish said as they sat down on the side of the room, everyone but Harry sipping wine, "why don't we count how many names St. Jimmy has now. Let's start with the first, Harry Potter. Then St. Jimmy, then kumquat, Malfoy called you Pothead I think, then we got The Chosen One, then Our Savior, now _The_ Savior, Sir Harry James Potter, and one of my personal favorites, Sir Saint Jimmy. That sounds so cool."

"None of you are you calling me Sir. Neither are my parents or Sirius or Remus, though my father is having his ultimate joy wandering around freely in the palace with Sirius by using the name Sir Harry Potter's father. It's apparently been a dream of there's to play a prank on Prince William. I don't know if he'll appreciate that very much, he's kind of old."

"His maid will find it when she's cleaning," Bonnie said, leaning on his shoulder.

Harry took both her hands that were in her lap. It was the first time he noticed that one of her hands was covered with a lacy jewel that ran up her hand from her ring in laced black silver and small jewels, up to her wrist where it hooked together like a bracelet.

"Where did you get that?" Harry asked, looking over her hand.

"Oh, when we told our parents that we were postponing the wedding till after we finish school my mother knows you and knew you were worried about guys hitting on me and what not." She gave Harry a light smile as he smirked at her. "So she gave this to me. It's from pureblood families. Before the marriage the girl would wear this to show that she was taken. It's more noticeable then an engagement ring."

"You're going to wear this till we get married?"

"Yes I am. Why, you don't like it?"

"It's nice." He kissed her hand and held it while they waited for the party to end. He may be the Savior but that didn't mean he liked politics or was the least bit interested in adults talking about them as though it was the only thing that went on in the world. So while the adults Harry knew closely talked with the people that run the countries Harry and his friends discussed strange things that were bound to happen while Harry was on this spree of fame at the moment.


	29. The Week That Everything Else Happened

28

The Week That Everything Else Happened

At the Dursley house…

"_Dad_?" Dudley screamed for his father while his mouth hung open staring at the television. A few seconds later when his father didn't reply he called again.

"What is it Duddykins?" Petunia asked, as she walked in with her husband following her.

"Look at the television," Dudley said softly, pointing to the screen.

His parents looked at the television and their mouths immediately fell open at the sight of Harry Potter, their nephew, being knighted Sir Harry Potter, Savior of the world. And the whole world erupted with cheers.

\-\

Harry headed downstairs to the dining room, black makeup smeared over his eyelids as he hadn't bothered to wash it off before bed.

Last night they had all celebrated Harry's knighting in their own way, since the palace party wasn't exactly their piece of cheesecake. So they all dressed up in their black best and high tops and headed outside to have a party on Harry's deserted street. Strangely enough the family was rich enough to buy the house as big as it was where you can hardly find your way around, and the land around it. So there were no neighbors to bother the music with.

He stepped into the dining room to find it strangely lacking in presence. He searched the other two and found his parents, Sirius and Remus and their girlfriends, and Bonnie eating breakfast but everyone else was missing.

"Where are all of my minions?" Harry asked as he sat down at the table beside Bonnie.

"Good morning to you to, Harry," Bonnie said sarcastically.

"Sorry, good morning love. Where are all my minions?"

"They've gone to court to collect their consolation prize for being a victim of war."

"I was a victim of the war, and so were you. Do we get a consolation prize?" Harry asked.

"You got knighted and everyone bowing at your feet. I guess they thought that was enough for you," Bonnie said, pretending she couldn't understand it either.

"What do you get?"

"I got you," Bonnie smiled, kissing his cheek.

"Aww, darling. You should have taken the money," he smiled.

Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Did Avin and Ial go? They shouldn't, they got a huge meal out of the war."

"Neither of them was willing to risk the sun to be paid money they don't need. Oye is whining in his sleep. I heard him when I passed them in the hall."

"Aww. So what are we doing all day while they're all getting paid?" Harry asked. "By the way, while we're all down here who's watching Sirius jr.?"

"The nanny."

"We have a nanny in the house?" Lily nodded. "Since when?"

"Since Sirius was born dear."

"There's something I've been wondering," Sirius asked. "When Sirius gets older how are we going to tell the two of us apart?"

"We're expecting you to be too old to act like a child by then Sirius," Remus said casually.

"That's not what I meant. We have the same name. How will I know whether you're talking about me or the other Sirius?"

"Try subjects. Little Sirius will still be a child and therefore when we say Sirius is being childish we're talking about you."

"That's hard to remember," Sirius pouted.

"I'll call him little Sirius so you won't get confused," Harry offered.

"Thank you Sir Harry," Sirius smiled.

"Is that going to be our little joke around the house? Because I don't find it very funny."

"Well the rest of us do so you'll have to deal with our antics till they annoy us to and then we'll stop," James said.

"Oh, lucky me," Harry sighed, though he was silently enjoying it.

While they continued talking a house elf popped into the room beside Harry and bowed while holding up the paper, not looking him in the face. "Sir Potter," he said as Harry took the paper.

"Thank you." The house elf then left the room quickly. He turned to everyone else. "The house elves won't look at me anymore."

"And they give you the paper," James said upset.

"That's because it's been about me for the past week. Let's see whose writing front page this week." It was a muggle newspaper and the cover point of the day was

_Sir Harry James Potter: Imitating the Punks of England_

"What do they mean _imitating_? I've been a punk since I was four. And where do they get off pretending they know me?"

"Harry, you only read the title," Bonnie pointed out.

Harry looked down at the paper and read.

_We have all seen the well-behaved, down to earth Savior of the world. But is there a darker side to Sir Potter? We caught pictures of Sir Potter and his friends on the street of Sir Potter's house, where he lives with his two parents, who apparently came back to life only last summer. _

"Blah blah blah. I don't mean to say anything bad against the Savior. Blah, blah, blah. Is he trying to look like he's one of the other teens by dressing like a rebel?" Harry read as though it was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard.

"You're not a fake Harry, we all know that," Bonnie said.

"What do they think I am? A political sixteen year-old 'ass' who reads about the government? My first plan was to take over the world not root for government," Harry said angrily.

"Watch your language dear," Lily reprimanded out of habit.

"Sorry. Remind me never to read this paper again."

"Mhmm," Bonnie hummed, taking it away from him to read the entire article.

Harry watched her reading for a second until she lifted her hand, without looking up from the paper, and directed his head in another direction. "No one ever said what we're doing today. I've been knighted; I can't spend all my time in my room anymore, Prose is getting really annoyed with me."

"Well, you have many television shows that want to talk to you," James said.

"It's a bit early for that don't you think? Politicians are throwing themselves at my feet, can you even begin to imagine what the normal public would do to me. I already have four body guards and one of them has asked me for an autograph."

"Well, you could take some people to court and win with your all new fame."

"Dad, I told you before. I'm not suing Uncle Vernon," Harry said straightforward, reading something over Bonnie's shoulder.

"Why the hell not?" James whined.

"Because it's immoral. I can't sue my uncle for things he did in the past just because I have an excess amount of power over the government now," Harry said, looking his father in the eye.

"Would it make you feel any better to know he was on television talking about you a few days ago?" Bonnie asked.

"What for?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"The newspaper says that your uncle has made claim to all the things you touched in his house and is making them valuable for sale. Including the bed you slept on, the floorboard where you kept all your things, and the rose covered wall that printed out the word HIMSELF," she said, raising her eyebrows at him suspiciously as she had never heard of the art. For being childhood friends, even Fish had never seen the inside of the Dursley house.

"He can't sell that, it's my art," Harry said, angrily.

"So sue him for that, if not for anything else," James said.

"Fine, if it will make you all so happy, I'll sue my uncle. But only because he is now using my things for money after he continuously called me a piece of worthless shit. I do not appreciate being the subject of irony."

"Oh!" James said suddenly. "I forgot to tell you. Your first therapy session is in a few days."

Everyone looked at him surprised, as this was the first any of them were hearing about therapy. (Besides Harry.)

"You found someone?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. He's an old friend of mine. But he's very professional; anything you say between the two of you is kept between the two of you. Unless you want him to tell someone. He promises not to bow at your feet when you enter a room as well."

"Good. Thank you."

"No problem. It wasn't as hard as I was expecting. Luckily, Sirius's old therapist is one of those people who would notice that you don't want to be worshiped like a God."

"Sirius's old therapist?" Harry asked. "Why are you friends with Sirius's old therapist?"

"He was a nice guy," James said.

"And he had an affair with Narcissa Malfoy right before she was married and it's always fun to make fun of him when we see him," Sirius said and all three marauders broke out in laughter.

"You knew your therapist that well?" Harry asked Sirius.

"Well he was only a few years older then us. I was sixteen when I started seeing him, after I ran away from home and got disowned and he was twenty-three. He should be heading for his mid-life crisis about now."

"So should the rest of you," Harry smiled.

"I still have twenty years till that happens," James smiled.

\-\

"All of Mr. Potter's things that he owned personally in the Dursley home will be returned to him," Minister Scrimmaguer announced. "Any things sold to people already will be given back their money by the Dursleys and the item will be given back to Mr. Potter in the same state it was given to said person."

"I refuse to give the little freak a piece of my house just because he painted on it," Vernon yelled.

"Mr. Dursley if you use such vile words to describe the Savior again you'll be giving up much more then your wall," Cameron told him, standing from his seat beside the Minister. He was asked to show up since it was a case involving the Savior and a muggle.

"None the less, it is true. We can't ask Mr. Dursley to deconstruct his house just to give Sir Potter his art back. He did paint on it."

"He was going to tear it off to sell it anyway," Cameron muttered angrily.

"Ministers," Harry interrupted. "I really don't care about the wall. I don't care if you scrape the dead flowers off the wall and put them in a bucket before you give them back to me. The point is my art, especially not that one, is not going to be sold."

"I'm sure Mr. Dursley could agree on that," Scrimmaguer said, as Harry sat back down and gripped Bonnie's hand again. He had fought Voldemort and many death eaters and yet his uncle still had the power to scare him. No matter how much he tried not to show it.

"Fine," Vernon groaned, slumping back into his large chair.

"Great, it's settled then. Mr. Potter's things will be returned and all buyers' money will be returned. Next case."

\-\

Harry was lying back on the lounge chair in the parlor where he was supposed to meet with his shrink in an hour. He closed his eyes and sighed. The Suburban Children of Sub Gossip parents—who really need a new name now—were out buying a big house together since none of them wanted to live with their parents and, no matter how much he loved his sister, Fish didn't want to live with her. So they all gathered together to buy a house for once they finished school, which they were debating over returning to. Bonnie had gone home for the day. She had told Harry she needed to do something but refused to tell him what and only left him with the words, "It's a surprise." So he was left in the parlor alone an hour before his therapist would show up.

He hadn't heard the door open but he did feel the presence standing beside him for a second. And just as he was about to open his eyes the person climbed onto the lounge chair and sat on him, straddling his waist. He looked up into the smiling face of his girlfriend. For once in her life she was not wearing her hair in perfect curls; instead it was all pulled back into a neat but sloppy bun. And even stranger she was wearing a very pink, very designer, ballerina dress. It was completely sleeveless, very un-Bonnie-ish, and the top was a tight pink corset that flowed into a long tutu at the waist that made it seem like an actual dress. Harry couldn't help but smile amused and confused as he looked her over.

"What are you wearing?" he asked, quite confused as to why Bonnie was here in the first place when she said she had something important to do at home.

"It's your surprise! You don't like it?" she asked with a sad pout. "I knew I should have gotten it in black but I thought I would go back to my old color for a bit of fun. You know I know that the pastels attracted you when I was little. And I wanted to wear something that would make you cheery not something that would make you think Helena video," she babbled. Harry stopped her by putting a finger to her lips. She looked down at him looking surprised as though she had forgotten he was there.

"Love, why is my surprise you wearing a ballerina outfit?" he asked, suspiciously. "Are you trying to seduce me?" he asked, raising his eyebrows seductively at the thought.

"No, Mr. We'll Wait For Marriage," she said. "I just knew your therapist meeting was today and I thought I would surprise you by wearing this cute little outfit. I saw it and I thought if I wore that I'm sure Harry would have to smile. Either out of laughter or because I look great."

"Well you got both," he smiled. "And if you were trying to seduce me," he said, running a hand up the side of her corset, "I'd have to tell you that it sure was working."

"Really?" she smiled, leaning down.

"Mhmm," Harry nodded as his other hand came up to rest under her chin as she placed her lips upon his in a loving kiss. His hand left her face to join his other to run up the sides of her dress before wrapping around her waist. As Bonnie ran her fingers into his hair Harry's caressed the smooth skin that wasn't usually uncovered for him to touch. Bonnie moaned into his mouth at the feel of his rough hands against her delicately pale skin. They were snogging for a few minutes when Harry turned and moved Bonnie underneath him but so that they were both practically on their sides; him leaning over her. They continued to kiss as Harry ran his hand down her neck and over her collarbone with his lips following the path over her neck. His hand stroked down her side and over her hip; he moved her hips closer to his own making Bonnie moan, as at the same time he kissed a sensitive spot between her shoulder and neck. He reached up to the small of her back to hold her against him as he moved back to her mouth. "I really love this dress," he mumbled against her lips. "You should wear this on our honeymoon."

Bonnie giggled. "Why Sir Potter!" she exclaimed, putting her hands on his chest to push him away. "That is quite inappropriate. Not to mention insane. I can't wear something on our honeymoon that you've already seen. Everything has to be new."

"Says who?"

"Says me. If you want to see the dress again I'll let you wear it and you can look in the mirror. I'm sure you're my size."

"Uh! That was so insulting," Harry joked.

"Fine. I'll wear the dress often before we go on our honeymoon. That way you can get tired of it and all things new will be brought with us and we'll leave the dress behind," Bonnie reasoned.

"I meant the part about me being your size but I'll take that to," he smiled, pulling her back into the kiss. Bonnie giggled and ran her hand up his chest, running her fingers inside the collar of his shirt.

"What time is your therapist supposed to get here?" Bonnie asked as Harry kissed her neck.

"About an hour," he said, pulling away. "Why?"

"Maybe we should stop. He could come early you know. And I would rather not be caught by your therapist or any other adult in this house, snogging in the parlor. In a very strange dress no doubt," she said.

"How did you get into the house without anyone seeing you in it?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. Everyone's busy I guess."

"Hmm. Then my therapist will probably be coming on time and if everyone's so busy there's no chance of them walking in on us," he said, moving in for another kiss.

Bonnie ducked her head and pulled out of Harry's hold. Harry groaned in disappointment. "Oh come on, we can snog each other later," she said, sitting up and scooting back against the pillows.

Harry followed and wrapped his arms around her waist. "But I want to snog you now," Harry whined, nuzzling into her neck.

"You silly. Let's talk," she said, pulling from his arms and sitting beside him.

"About what?" Harry asked, pulling one of his legs onto the couch and turning it in as he turned to face her. "I'm about to do an hour of talking with a complete stranger. Can't we kiss now and talk tomorrow?"

"Wouldn't you rather talk to me?" she pouted.

Harry sighed. "Sure. What about?"

"How do you think you'll do on your exams's?"

"You want to talk about school?" Harry complained. Bonnie glared at him. Harry sighed. "Fine I guess. When are we taking them anyway?"

"Well me and everyone else are taking them on Friday with the other students at Hogwarts," she said.

"What do you mean you and the other students? What about me?" Harry asked.

"Well you'll be taking yours here. The Headmaster and your parents think it would be better if you didn't go to school just yet. Your fans might go a little mad and not be able to concentrate of their exams."

"Why do you know this before I do?"

"Well we all got a letter in the mail about the date of the exams and what time to get on the train and I asked your parents if you were going and they told me."

"When did this happen?"

"When you were drowning your sorrows to your snake up in your room," Bonnie said.

"Oh," he said plainly, looking for a spot on the carpet. He looked up at her. "Can we snog now?"

Bonnie giggled but gave in and placed a kiss on Harry's lips and let him pull her onto his lap as they continued. He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned back against the couch pulling her against his chest. Then there was a knock on the door and he was left to groan as Bonnie pulled her mouth away. She climbed off his lap and called for them to come in.

James walked into the room followed by a man they didn't know. He had long brown hair that fell in waves just above his shoulders and he had blue eyes. He was wearing long black robes, of course.

"Hello, hope we didn't interrupt anything. Bonnie, you look nice," James smiled.

"Thank you," Bonnie smiled, unashamed.

"Harry, this is your therapist Joshua Miller," James introduced.

"Nice to meet you," Harry said, giving him a light smile.

"You as well," Josh smiled.

"Well I guess we'll leave the both of you on your own to talk. Bonnie." Bonnie pecked Harry on the lips before standing to follow James out of the room.

Josh went over and sat down in front of Harry. "So, Savior of the wizarding world? I hardly know you at all and I can already think of a few things you would need to admit to a therapist," he laughed.

"Yeah. I guess."

"So I heard in the newspapers that you sued your uncle. How long had that fight been going on?"

"Since I was four. After I tried to throw myself in front of a car," Harry said.

"You tried to commit suicide when you were four?" Josh asked curiously.

"Well, Aunt Petunia had told me my parents were in heaven with God. So I wanted God to take me to heaven too. It wasn't too horrible though. I'm still alive and I met Fish that day. That was when he decided to call me St. Jimmy. When my aunt had pulled me back I had lost my necklace and Fish helped me find it," Harry said, pulling the cross out from under his shirt. "I really believed in God then too. I forgot who gave that one to me though but Fish, Tim, and Tom put their money together one year for Christmas to buy their "leader," St. Jimmy, a new cross. Little weirdoes."

"Hmm. Why do you think you felt this way so young?" Josh asked.

"I don't know. I guess I just thought if anyone was to help me get away from the Dursleys or form an excuse to be away from them all the time; I thought maybe God would be able to do that." Josh nodded and let Harry continue to speak about what he wanted. "I spoke to God once."

"You did?"

"I've never told anyone about this before."

"Anything you say to me in this room will be kept in the strictest confidence."

"When I was four and I had tried to go see my parents in heaven by stepping in front of speeding traffic, when I was inches from being hit by that car, I swore that I spoke to God."

"What did he say to you?"

"He said that he wanted me to save his people. He told me that I had to train myself to fight an evil that would frighten his people for years until I saved them. He said that if I did this for him I would have a reserved place in heaven and that he would give me anything that I wanted. I could have anything I wanted and it didn't even have to apply to space and time. At the time I had thought that the only thing I would ever want was to be with my parents again, but I knew that if God wanted me to save his people they couldn't come down here because it would be dangerous for them and I couldn't be with them in heaven because I had to prepare for this war. So I went on, met Fish, and continuously thought about what I could possibly want from God that I didn't already have or couldn't get when I was to saved the world.

"Then I saw her. When I was seven years old she walked up to me and I knew immediately that if I was to ask God for anything it would be for something that would never leave me to wander the earth alone. I wanted someone who would love me unconditionally but not in the same way a parent would. Someone who just loved you for what you were and who you were and just because it was meant to be and the only thing that told you that was your heart. I didn't know it would be her at the time but I knew that I liked her and that I was attracted to her. So, knowing that our professors had told us that we would mature much faster then normal kids, I went out with other girls. Going out when you're eight is kind of like five year-olds playing together in a sandbox. It really doesn't mean anything. I knew quickly that it meant something to Bonnie though. She was always with me and everyone could tell that she was always jealous. She never liked the other girls in the group and she would always fight with them for my attention. She would always win of course because deep down she was the only one who could get my attention without ever trying. The other girls were just to see if it was her that attracted me or just the fact that she was a girl and she was always there. But it was her and I knew it. I continued to date other girls though. I knew I couldn't have her. She was a girl, I was supposed to save the world for God and she would only get in the way. So instead, knowing from the beginning that I loved her, I kept her close and always kept her at my side. She followed and did whatever I asked of her just to be near me. I knew then that was what I wanted. I remembered God's words that if I saved his people for him he would let me have anything I wanted without fear of being persecuted for my sins. I knew in the moment I saw her but it only just popped into my head when I was around nine. When I finished God's plans, I would make sure that I got to keep Bonnie, forever. She would always be mine because God promised me anything I wanted. And all I wanted was her."

"Wow," was the therapist's only comment. "I've never heard anyone talk so passionately about their love life. I didn't know anyone could feel so strongly about someone that it would be the only thing they ever wanted in life."

"Bonnie's very special to me."

"Does she know how very special she is to you?"

"I'm sure she does. She knows that I love her and that I want to marry her and be with her forever. I told her so. That's why I wanted to get married as soon as possible. I didn't want to waste any time without her. I want to be her everything and I want to give her anything she wants or needs no matter how pointless the want is or how unnecessary the need is to me. She deserves to get whatever she wants. She's a great person."

"Yes, she seems to love you very much."

"Yeah. That brings me to another reason for you being here. You see I got this letter a little while ago. Two days after the war I think. And I need someone else's opinion on it before I discuss some of the things in it with Bonnie. I'm not sure how I should be reacting to it," Harry said, taking the letter out of his jacket.

"Who wrote the letter?" Josh asked as Harry unfolded the letter and held it out to him.

"Voldemort," Harry answered.

Josh pulled his hand away from the letter. "Voldemort wrote you a letter?"

"Trust me, it's even weirder once you read it."

"I won't be cursed by reading this will I?"

"I doubt it. Trust me, it's not the kind of letter you'd be expecting from a Dark Lord who wanted to kill me."

Josh raised his eyebrows but took the letter from Harry. He looked down at the friendly addressed letter. He read the address and looked back up at Harry. "To my dear Harry?" he asked.

"It gets weirder."

Josh read the letter over and then read it a second time before realizing that it was really written down. He looked up at Harry. "So um….Voldemort….the Dark Lord, he uh… he liked you."

"So you saw that to. I thought I was going insane. You see after I finished the letter. There was Nagini, his big snake and I asked her my questions. Wanna know what I asked? I'll tell you," he said before Josh could reply. "I asked, "Why did he choose me?" And you wanna guess what she said? I'll tell you what she said. She said that he knew I would be the more powerful one because I was the half-blood. Apparently he did some research and thinking before he made his decision and came up with the thought that all the in-family marrying and all the purebloods marrying their cousins was clogging up the power line. But in a way he was right. I was the one who inherited Merlin's power in the family right after Dad married mum, unclogging the blood line. It makes total sense.

"And then I asked why he wanted to kill off half-bloods when we all know he was one himself. And she said that he was ashamed of his own heritage. But once he realized about the blood lines he decided he wanted to fight for the half-bloods and that's why he likes me. That's why he tortured me less then he tortured his own followers. It makes a huge amount of sense, right?"

"Yes."

"Right. And then he left all his money to me. He's using me as his heir. Is it wrong to accept money from the person you killed? I mean, he knew I killed him and yet he told me to take the money so it would be okay. right? But shouldn't I give it all to some charity, though I'm sure it'll be too much to spend in one lifetime no matter what I do. But isn't it, like, tainted money, should I just get rid of it? But then again he was so nice about it. Saying that thing about fearing death but if he had to die he was glad it was by a worthy opponent. He called _me_ a _worthy_ opponent."

"I don't think the money is tainted Harry. Voldemort obviously had a burst of amiability before he died and left you all his money. He didn't have any family members, all his death eaters were dead, and he did seem sincere about the whole letter."

"Didn't he?" Harry asked, looking shocked. "I mean, I knew there was a reason I was more scared of my own uncle than I ever was of Voldemort. It was because Voldemort actually liked me. He didn't torture me nearly as much as my uncle did; he even called me Harry or Potter. My uncle called me boy, or freak. Those are very important details when you realize who hates you."

"You feared your own uncle more then Voldemort?" Josh asked, amazed.

"Well of course I did. I had no control over what my uncle did to me. He was my uncle. I lived in his house. He could murder me in my sleep and I couldn't defend myself. Voldemort it didn't matter. I just had to hit him with a spell and I didn't feel any guilt. I think deep down we shared some sort of strange, enemy bond with each other. It's beautiful and yet slightly disturbing. Maybe it was the scar and the fact that we were the only people left on earth who could talk to snakes," Harry said, speaking quickly as though he had been waiting years to admit this to someone. He then turned up to Josh and asked quickly, "You don't think it's strange that I enjoy this strange relationship I have with my now dead nemesis do you?"

"Um not particularly, no," Josh answered, unsure where Harry kept his thoughts when he wasn't talking. They seemed to pop out of nowhere but he seemed to have been bursting to talk about them with someone.

"Good, because neither do I. I mean on some point it is strangely creepy, you know? But he's kind of like that crazed out father figure who's trying to teach you something while laughing while you suffer and try to figure it out on your own."

"Your own father isn't enough?" Josh joked.

"Well of course he is now. But I knew Voldemort better when I was eleven then I knew my own father. I knew Voldemort wanted me dead and that this was the person God was telling me to destroy and save the world from. That was the time I had to give up my plan to take over the world," he added, sounding slightly sad, but Josh took it as a joke. "But I hadn't met Sirius or Remus at that time and the only thing I could learn about my father was that he owned an invisibility cloak, played quidditch and that he was a wizard. But to some extent my dad wasn't always there so I took bits and pieces of other adults to build my parental figures. Even if they were slightly insane and trying to kill me. Don't tell Snape because he was one of them. And don't tell my dad that I said that, he'll disown me. And don't tell Bonnie because she loves Snape. But only because he lets her do potions in the classroom."

"Harry," Josh started, so he could get Harry's attention. "I'm starting to get that you have a lot of stuff to get off your chest here but we're sort of running out of time and we do have more sessions. It's not as though you'll never be able to talk to me again. So maybe now's the time to stop you from rambling."

Harry lowered his head slightly looking ashamed as he had probably given the man a headache. "Sorry. I just had to get some things out before I just blurted them out to some stranger on the street. Then the whole world would know I'm practically insane."

"It's okay, sometimes rambling is good but you should probably talk more slowly so we can discuss these questions you have. And you are not insane Harry. I have many patients and you are definitely one of the more sane ones."

Harry smiled lightly. "I'm sure none of them took the time to see how Voldemort could be seen as a father figure," he said, sounding a bit disgusted with himself.

"Harry, I think it's a great quality you have to see the good in everyone. I mean, if you can see something good out of someone you knew you had to kill or the world would be in turmoil, than that is some truly amazing gift you have."

"Yeah, seeing the good in Voldemort being a father. An amazing gift. But it is seeable, isn't it? I mean, in some way I slightly imagined that he was only being cruel to me so that I would learn better. It's kind of like treating people like dogs in a way but… well I did learn my lesson. I never tortured my followers, first because it's a horrible way to treat friends and second because it would obviously weaken them. He taught me not to fear death, how to see the good in people, how you should take what you have when you have it because you might die and never get the chance again. I don't think there are many ways to teach those things while giving them actual meaning and life."

Josh could only smile. Harry thought strangely but it made him see just why he had followers in the first place and why people seemed to look up to him. "No wonder you gained followers so fast," he accidentally mumbled to himself.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Nothing. Well, it seems that our time is up Harry."

"Really? It seems like we've only been here a few minutes."

"Sadly it is. But I'll see you again next week, same day, same time," he said, standing up from his chair. Harry stood up as well and shook his hand before leading him out and to the floo room where they said their good byes.

\-\

Once Josh was gone, since the rest of the house seemed to be out, that meant that him and Bonnie had the house to themselves. His parents were out at a meeting with Dumbledore and some professors who were now discussing Harry instead of Voldemort and how they were going to work out his schooling. Harry really didn't care, if it wasn't for his friends he probably would have skipped out on school this year. What was the point, he had already finished all his seventh year classes, and he couldn't even begin to imagine what they would have him do while he was at school since he had already finished all his classes but he was expecting them to be creative.

Ron and Hermione went back home to have some alone time and then Hermione was to head back to her parents so that she could talk to them. Her parents had just gotten back to their own house since they had been hiding in one of the extra houses during the war. A lot of others had just gotten back to their own homes and some were rebuilding with money that people were donating to the cause. And some was given by the Ministry with money collected from Death Eaters with no family. Harry was planning to donate some "tainted" money to the cause as well, and a lot to the orphans of the war. But he hadn't gotten to it yet as he hadn't even collected the stupid key to all Voldemort's vaults and he had to go visit his own that was sitting in his bedroom in France.

And Fish, Tim, Tom and the others were trying to buy the house down the road from Harry's. They planned to live their together and question Avin, Ial and Oye over the phone about details they like and dislike.

He was about to head upstairs to his bedroom where Bonnie was most likely waiting for him while watching Gone With the Wind on pay-per view, until he heard the doorbell ring. He looked around the house and realized that maybe there being no one in the house wasn't such a good thing. He sighed and blew his hair out of his eyes. "Where are the guards when you need them?" Harry wondered heading toward the door.

"Potter you open that door you're dead!"

He turned toward the stairs and saw Bonnie running down the stairs in a black skirt, loose red tank and heels. She came up beside him. "There could be reporters outside that door and you want to open and loose your beautiful eyesight before our wedding. I think not," she said, shoving him to the side. She then slipped a pair of large black sunglasses over her eyes and gently opened the door. When there weren't any flashes she opened it a bit wider.

A man stood nervously before her holding a pen and paper. She put her sunglasses on her head. He kneeled on the ground. "A delivery My Lord."

Bonnie raised her eyebrows. "Harry, you have a worshiper," she said around the door.

Harry came out and took the pen and board from the man who held it out while looking at the ground. "You really don't have to kneel like that," Harry said, though he knew they wouldn't listen.

"My mother would kill me if I didn't bow," he said. Harry noticed the man was still young and seemed to be only around eighteen. "I need college."

"Of course. Thanks for the delivery," Harry said, handing him his board back as the man stood. "Do you happen to know what it is?"

"Uh, I think it's the wall from your uncle's house. I'm so sorry about that by the way."

"Yeah. Thanks, that'll be all," Harry said hurriedly.

The man quickly added in a quick bow before hurriedly going to unload the truck with the other men. Harry headed over to the large truck and informed them to hold which they did quickly. Harry stepped onto the truck, pulled out his wand and said a small shrinking spell and picked the small brick sized cinderblock. He climbed off the truck and gave the men a smile and a tip for their bowing before heading quickly into the house before hidden reporters woke up and realized he was outside his house.

"So what is this masterpiece that your uncle couldn't sell and you just had to have returned even if it was in pieces?" Bonnie asked as Harry walked toward the staircase.

"It's a piece of art I made a while ago that symbolizes us. It was after I knew I wanted you but before I knew I would."

"Can I see it?" she asked with a soft smile.

"I'll enlarge it for you when we get upstairs," he said, pulling her up with him. "Why did you take off your dress?"

"I couldn't answer the door in that. If it was reporters they would think I was mental. And that's your category."

"Haha," Harry laughed sarcastically as they made it up to his room. He set the block near a wall leaning it upward and then said a spell wandless. The wall grew back to normal size and Bonnie stared wondrously at the wall. Harry's art signature played out in a flower that meant life to her. It was beautiful.

"Harry, it's beautiful."

"It's nothing great," he said, dully.

"Harry, what's that supposed to mean?" she asked, tersely; knowing that this piece meant the same to him as it did to her.

"Well I did it to represent us but at the time I did it there really wasn't an us so it's lost it's spark a bit. Because now that I have you I realize that nothing can represent the way I feel about you," he said, wrapping his arms around his waist to hold her close.

She couldn't stop her smile. "I can never get angry at you," she pouted, leaning into his chest.

"You're disappointed?" Harry asked, resting in her hair.

"No, I'm just pointing it out. You always have a comeback. I don't know, it might get a bit annoying," she said, as though tempting him to fight with her.

"I can't get mad at you darling, I'm sorry," Harry laughed, petting her curls.

Bonnie sighed and pulled back slightly. "I guess we'll just have to stand for the perfect couple. It'll be in the newspaper if this ever gets out you know?" she said, as if they were talking about them having a horrible relationship.

"Oh what a travesty darling. We must keep this little secret under wraps," Harry said secretively.

Bonnie smiled and leaning up to meet his lips in a passionate kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his down a bit as she stood on her tip toes. "I love you," she mumbled against his lips.

"I love you," Harry replied, opening his eyes to her.


	30. The Secret Insanity of Our Savior

29

The Secret Insanity of Our Savior

Harry took his exams and his NEWTs (because he had passed all of his seventh year courses) the day everyone else was out shopping for their school things. Harry wasn't invited, not because he had to take his NEWTs. They had purposely made his shopping on a different day then everyone else's so that he wasn't at home alone feeling left out. Instead, he was testing while everyone else was out with his guards, shopping for school things as they prepared to go back to Hogwarts. Harry was still unsure what he was going to do at Hogwarts but he knew he was getting his own private room. Dumbledore let him know that he was going to be Head Boy, not just to have his own room but because everyone knew he… well he saved the world, you get the point.

When he had finished early he reminisced on the fact that he knew something none of the others did. The small group he had formed twelve years ago had always been growing bigger and that small group had started with Fish. Though then his name had been—"Harry come down for lunch," Lily called.—but he would never admit to it. And Fish had made up the rule, when Harry had started to stare longingly at Bonnie that they weren't allowed to date outside the group, which was weird because Bonnie was the only girl, which created a need to add more members. But now Fish had broken his own rule and was dating outside the group. Fish thought this was secret but he forgot that Harry knows all that goes on in his group.

Yesterday when he had been wandering the halls reading to catch up for his Newts he had heard another noise in the hall and around the corner was Fish and Ginny. He had her captured back against the wall with both his hands pressed against it beside her shoulders. He leaned down and captured her lips in a sensual kiss. Harry had met almost all of Fish's girlfriends, not the ones he met at St. Brutis's, but all the others, and Fish and never been "nice," per say, to his girlfriends. He had always been a bit cold toward them, as if just letting them know he was only using them for company and snogging. He was a very lonely little boy and liked having a girl by him to make him feel better, especially while at school. But apparently, Ginny was different.

Harry was giddy for the rest of the day. Now he wondered if he should tell them that he knew or let them come out with it on their own. There could always be nothing going on. Ginny could have always pushed him away and Harry just missed that part; though he seriously doubted that after all the flirting that Ginny would say no after she had gotten what she had obviously wanted.

\-\

"Dad, give me my wand back. I'm turning seventeen, you can't steel my things anymore," Harry argued, trying to pull his wand from his father.

"Harry, you can't kill the reporters," James argued, trying to take the lethal wand away from his son.

"I've not lost my mind. I _know_ this. I just… want to… shoot at them. They called me a prissy boy."

"They called you a romantic," James argued.

"Read between the lines. At some point during that article they were asking me to attack them," Harry said, now more forcefully trying to pull at his wand.

"James, would you give him his wand, he's not going to shoot at anyone," Lily said as she passed by in the dining room where the two were fighting. The rest of the house was watching entertained while eating their breakfast. Harry had just read the paper.

"Have you been listening at all? He said they were asking for it, he obviously believes his own words Lily," James grunted as he pulled back on the wand.

"You're going to break my wand in half and then where will we be?" Harry asked, angrily.

"With you at a loss of how to kill the reporters and me happy that my son won't go to Azkaban. Or at least get a slap on the wrist."

"I can deal with that. It will give me self-satisfaction. All you want is for your son to be happy, don't you?"

"I have two sons now. _You_ I am going to keep from going insane."

Harry gasped. "That was _rude._"

"I'm your father Harry; I can say whatever I want without any guilt. Now hand over the wand," James said.

"Fine. Take the stupid wand," Harry said, letting go. James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll just go attack the reporters with wandless magic. Maybe I'll think of a way to make the reporters hate me again, they'll write a nasty review, and then the fans will get angry and attack the reporters for me."

"Harry, no offense, but that's a horrible plan," Fish interrupted.

"Who asked you? You're not the one they write stupid things about every day in the paper. I'm getting really tired of hearing about myself."

"That's no reason to attack them Harry. You'll ruin your reputation if you go on a rampage against the media."

"I don't care. They're out to make me look like a pansy. So I like my religion, it's not my fault I grew up the way I did and I had an over-obsessive relationship with God. That doesn't make me… what my boss used to call me."

"I don't think that's where they're getting it from darling," Bonnie said. "This other paper says that your old Boss and a few of your ex-girlfriends that never joined the group set out to call you a lost-cause because they all knew you had a fear of commitment. Now they really know that it was just because you were truly in love with me," she smiled. "And because you're holding out for sex until marriage. Don't know how they figured that one out," she said, looking back at the paper.

Harry turned to his father. "Can't I just go punch out one reporter? There are about sixty of them right outside our door."

"No." James went back to the table and sat back down.

"Well fine. I'll just go back to my room and complain to my snake. He's going to leave me soon because I can't attack any reporters. I'm sending all my depressiveness to him. I need a Tootsie Roll," Harry pouted, walking away from the table.

"Harry."

He turned back around to see Bonnie holding a Tootsie Roll out to him with a knowing smile. He leaned in, taking the candy with one hand and putting the other behind her neck placing a sweet kiss on her mouth. "That's why I love you darling."

"Why, because I hoard giant Tootsie Rolls in my purse?"

"Mhmm," Harry smiled, before taking her hand and heading back to the table with a new smile on his face.

"You're having candy for breakfast?" Lily asked.

"I'm not in the mood to eat," Harry sighed, taking a large bite out of his Tootsie Roll.

"You're not in the mood to do anything," Fish sighed. "Where's the perky Harry we all knew and loved that used to want to set the barn on fire and set the horses free?"

"He died and went to heaven with his leg," Harry said, taking a sip of his orange juice.

"Can't you at least be excited that you're a knight?" Tim asked.

"No, because you're all taking the mickey out of me for it. So unsupportive of me being a knight. Besides, it would have been more fun to be a knight while I was fighting. I probably would have gone through less therapy if I could have just made it into a fairytale."

"It is quotes like that that have the newspapers calling you a pansy, Harry," Ron pointed sarcastically. Some of the table laughed.

Harry smirked. "Very funny, Ronald. Crack jokes all you want but one day you're going to say something stupid and I'm just going to laugh and laugh and laugh. And then the reporters will say, "Oh my god, Sir Potter is laughing." And they'll ask what is so funny and I'll tell them what you said and then your stupid words will be all over the globe being read by the entire literates of the world," Harry said before turning back to his Tootsie Roll and slouching in his seat.

"Someone should have paper and a quill on hand to make document of him going insane," Sirius said randomly. The entire table laughed.

"You people are insufferable." He turned to Bonnie. "You know we could have been in India right now, very happy and content without them."

"No we couldn't. We're not seventeen yet," Bonnie smiled.

"We could've gotten away with it."

"Sir Potter." Harry looked down to see a house elf holding a letter up to him while bowing so low their nose touched the floor. "This letter came for you. We checked Sir's letter for curses."

"Thank you," Harry said, taking the letter from the elf that quickly left the room. Harry looked the letter over.

"Who's it from?" James asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Someone from Rome. It doesn't say." He flipped open the envelope and pulled out the letter, which seemed to be on quite expensive paper and written in long elegant writing. He set the envelope on the table and flipped open the letter.

**To Sir Harry James Potter,**

**Based on the current state of things we have been searching papers and magazines for the public searching for anyone speaking of you. It wasn't very hard to find of course but we weren't expecting what happened to happen. With the circumstances of the months that have passed we were a bit uncertain about our feelings toward wizards and witches and the community that your people have formed. It isn't within our faith to believe that such things exist. That there are possibly people out there that are not explained in the bible who also don't believe in him, but a man named Merlin who is known to be the bastard son of a demon. **

**But when you had made your first speech in front of the muggle population of London and across the world, hearing you coax everyone to whatever religion they may believe in made us think that maybe there was something different about you. And when we read the paper the other morning and heard about you being a very strict Catholic. It has come to our attention that you are now very popular with the public of course and it is requested that you come visit the Vatican for a few days to discuss a few things. The Pope has made a personal request for you to please visit him on the twenty-second of June. **

**If you agree to this meeting, please reply to this letter through the return address on the envelope. **

**Sincerely, **

**Cardinal Bishop**

Harry stared shocked at the letter, which he had read twice. His breathing slowed and he probably looked like he was going to pass out. He felt like he was going to but he was sitting down. He pushed away his chair causing everyone to look back at him. He walked passed Bonnie's chair, who looked up at him curiously, as he hadn't taken his cane with him.

"Harry, are you alright?" Bonnie asked as Harry ran a hand over his hair.

"Umm… yeah. I'm just… just gonna…" His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out on the floor.

\-\

"Harry?"

Harry opened his eyes at the sound of Bonnie's voice.

"Oh thank God. You scared the heck out of me. I thought something happened."

"What happened?" Harry asked drowsily, looking around the room. It was just him, Bonnie and his new, personal nurse, that seemed to live in the house; that were in the room.

"You passed out on the floor after you got your letter."

"I got the letter?" Harry asked, shooting up in his bed.

"Yes you did," Bonnie smiled. "Is that why you fainted? You got knighted by the Queen of England and you didn't faint at that news."

"Bonnie! This is the POPE we're talking about. The Pope! Darling, I'm going to see the Pope. He requested to see me personally. I'm going to the Vatican to personally meet the Pope. The one who is voted to lead the Catholics into all their good deeds. Practically the leader to one of the largest religions in the world."

"I get it. You're excited. I'm very glad, you've been grumpy."

"I'm sorry. It's just all this political shit. All these people want me to talk and all these Ministers and Presidents and Governors and a whole bunch of these political leaders. I mean, I'm all for world peace but I don't want to spend all my time talking about politics with a bunch of stuck up leaders, half of who don't even care about their people. I'd rather talk to the people."

"I know kumquat. But maybe you should try to work with them and then you can get to where you want to be. Just get through all the stuff you don't like to get to the stuff you want."

Harry smiled and leaned forward to place a kiss on her lips.

"Pet? I seem to have gotten everything I want, is there anything that you want?"

"What do you mean? I have everything that I want. I have you," she smiled gently, leaning forward for another kiss. Harry smiled but didn't kiss her. "What?"

"Well I wanted you and I got you. So that doesn't count. What else do you want?"

"Well I'm still waiting for my wedding," she tried.

"So am I."

"You're not making this easy you know," she giggled.

"There has to be something. Anything; name anything you want that I can get you, no matter the price or how hard it is to get hold of."

"Harry, I don't need anything. I'm perfectly happy right now." She smiled sincerely.

"Good. I just want to make sure that you're happy. You know that if there was ever anything I could ever get you or buy for you or… anything. That I would—"

"I know Harry. You'd get me anything."

"I only want you to be happy. I'd do anything for you."

"I know. That's why you purposed wasn't it?"

"It might have been one of the reasons."

Bonnie smiled and looked down at her hands. "You know there is one thing you could do for me."

"What's that?" he asked, stroking her cheek.

"Let me stay here with you tonight. I'll miss you so much when you're away with the Pope at the Vatican."

"What do you mean you'll miss me? You're coming with me aren't you?"

"Well I don't remember my name being in the letter anywhere. This is your trip. I don't want to bug you. Besides, you'll be busy with your talks with the Pope and you won't need me there to be in the way. I don't really have an interest in that kind of thing. My father's the Prime Minister and I know less about government then my mother does."

"You won't be in the way."

"Yes I will. And you'll have much more fun there without me. You should take Fish or your father or someone."

"Why can't I take you?"

"Because women aren't as well respected in the Vatican as men are." She stopped him before he could protest. "Kumquat, we spend all day together and this is something you really want and I want you to enjoy it as much as you can. I can find something to do here without you. I'll spend time with Ginny and my mother. She's been missing me. Since the war she's wanted to talk to me about some kind of debutant ball that I have to talk her out of. And I'll go shopping and do girly things with Hermione and Ginny."

"I get it. You want to have "girl time" with your friends while I spend my "guy time" with the _Pope_," he said, as though he was figuring out that he was being ripped off.

"Basically," she smiled deviously.

"Oh well thank you for your offering. You're so caring Bonnie. Letting me off to spend quality bonding time with Pope and Fish, who I also see every day."

"Well I'll come with you if you want I guess. I just thought—"

"No, it's too late now. You've lost your chance. You're spending your week here with the girls, trading makeup secrets and discussing your "stupid" boyfriends. By the way, while you're talking with Ginny, try to get her to admit that she's dating Fish and then call me to tell me I'm right so I can torment Fish about it."

"Are you allowed to have cell phones in the Vatican?"

"We won't always be there. I don't think we're going to sleep at the Vatican."

"Ah yes. Speaking of sleeping arrangements…."

"Of course you can sleep here. And not just when I'm going away."

\-\

The next morning Bonnie woke up to someone shaking her. Her eyes opened faintly and she saw that it wasn't morning, it was still dark out as she could see through the curtains. She felt something moving behind her and she realized that Harry's arms were no longer wrapped around her. She turned over to see Harry shaking, shivering and he was pushing the covers away and muttering fearfully in his sleep. She leaned closer to hear.

"Burns. No more curses. No more fire," Harry whimpered, rubbing at his hands as he pushed the sheets further away from him, to get away from the heat.

"Harry," Bonnie said gently, putting a soft hand on his shoulder. Harry shivered in fear and moved away from her and crawled off the bed, still asleep. Bonnie slid to the other side of Harry's bed and slipped onto the floor. She kneeled onto the floor and watched as Harry laid himself down on the wood floor and suddenly stopped shivering. He sighed comforted by the cold the floor offered his, apparently, burning skin.

"Harry?" Bonnie said gently, moving closer to him as he seemed to be peacefully sleeping, but when she touched him he would whimper and move away. "St. Jimmy," she tried again. This time he didn't move when she touched him but he shivered slightly. "St. Jimmy, wake up okay? You're having a bad dream." She ran a hand through his hair and he suddenly stopped shivering. She watched as he slowly began to pull away from his dream as she ran her hand through his hair.

His eyes fluttered open and he looked around at where he was on the floor. He rolled over on his back and looked up at Bonnie. "Why am I on the floor?" he asked sleepily.

"You were… sleepwalking. You just didn't get very far," she smiled softly. She returned to running her fingers through his hair as he tried to remember his dream.

"What time is it?" Harry asked.

"Still night." She looked at her cell phone on the side table. "Three a.m."

"We should get back to bed," Harry yawned. "I'm sorry for waking you up," he said gently, sitting up and taking her hand to help her up.

"It's alright. Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah I'm fine," he said, slightly confused as he couldn't even remember the silly dream. He let her climb into bed first before crawling in after her and pulling the covers over them. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead. "Night love."

"Night St. Jimmy," she whispered quietly, nuzzling into his neck.

Harry sighed and let himself fall into a comfortable sleep, clinging to his love, the beautiful roses sending him into a peaceful sleep.

Once Bonnie knew he was asleep she reopened her eyes and removed her head from under his chin. She looked toward the boy that was going to be her husband in less then a year's time. She had been faintly wondering all week since his first therapy session if her love might be having some problems dealing with the aftermath of war. Harry, St. Jimmy, had always been strong, able to deal with everything, and no one expected any different from him this time. But he seemed different after the war and even if she wouldn't show it, it worried her dearly.

She had heard Josh, Harry's therapist, talking to James. Though he wasn't allowed to say what Harry had said, he was allowed to inform Harry's father what he thought was going on with Harry, if not just to tell him then to warn him and tell him how to help. Josh had said that Harry may be having some problems in his head. Stress from the war was putting pressure on his thoughts and feelings and apparently, according to Josh, saying things that he probably never meant but just came out anyway. (No offense to Frued's theory.) Harry might slowly be losing his mind but there was really no way to tell until it actually went further. He could just be dealing badly with all the press and the end of the war all happening so fast.

And then the nightmare tonight. He seemed so frightened and she had the feeling he wouldn't have even told her what the dream was about, even if he had remembered what it was. They had always told each other everything. (Besides being in love with each other; that took a while.) But Harry talking about everything feeling like it burnt and flinching at her touch, even if he was asleep, only triggered her to worry more.

She really hoped that maybe getting away from the house and seeing one of his spiritual icons would make him feel a bit better and a little more relaxed. Maybe the Pope would set his mind right. Or at least she hoped. Harry did believe that God would solve everything, but would he really solve something that Harry himself didn't see was wrong.

Bonnie sighed, tiring herself with her own endless thoughts and ran her hand over her fiancé's hair. She smiled and placed a kiss on his forehead. "I always knew you were slightly insane before St. Jimmy. Why should it worry me now?" She lifted one of his hands and placed a kiss on the center of his palm before holding tightly between them and silently falling asleep.

\-\

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Harry asked as he set his trunk down in front of the door as they were waiting for his father. "Because, I don't need a boy's week. If you wanna come—"

"We spent five years apart, Jimmy. I would think you could get along without me for a week while you're being preoccupied by the Pope," she smiled as Harry sat down on his trunk.

Harry smirked at her while wrapping his arms around her hips to pull her closer. "You've been calling me Jimmy all week now. I thought we moved over to Harry during the school year," he asked curiously.

Bonnie just shrugged. "I just feel like it. You don't want me to call you Jimmy?"

"It's fine. I was just wondering," Harry smiled. He pulled her down onto his lap and kissed her.

"I'm so glad we're leaving. People keep making out in my doorway," James said upon entering the entrance hall with his trunk.

Bonnie and Harry pulled away and Bonnie blushed. She stood up, pulling herself out of Harry's arms so he could stand up with her.

"Where's Fish?" Sirius asked.

"Probably making out with Ginny," Harry laughed quietly.

"What was that Harry?"

Harry looked up and Fish was standing in the hallway with his trunk.

"Nothing. I know nothing. Nothing at all, I'm completely oblivious to the relationships blossoming within the walls of my house." Harry smiled and ran toward his friend pulling him into a hug. He pulled away and grabbed Fish's wrists and began singing, "Fishies got a girlfriend. What girlfriend? A serious girlfriend. They're going to be happy and not have sex till marriage."

"You call me Fishy one more time and I'll smack you. And if her father finds out you're the first one I'm coming after. She has six brothers and a father. I am not going through that again."

"Marietta was not good to you," Harry said sadly. "But we can put all that behind us now and be happy for what you do have, which is Ginny."

"And look on the bright side," said Ron as he was the fourth person to enter the hall, "I already like you," he said, patting Fish on the shoulder. "Plus, Percy doesn't count so now you just have the older brothers, the twins, and an overly protective father."

"I feel so much better," Fish said sarcastically.

"Fishies got a girlfriend," Harry began singing again but stopped when Fish whacked him up the side of the head.

Bonnie was quick to follow and smacked Fish in the back of the head, a bit more forcefully. "Don't smack him he'll get brain damage. I don't want to see one dent on his head when he gets back or you'll be in serious trouble. All four of you." She pulled Harry in for a passionate kiss, which he wasn't expecting, and smiled. "See you in five days. Bye." She left, heading to the floo.

"Bye," Harry said, a bit confused with the speech. He turned to look at the others. "I don't even want to ask. Let's go. Onto the limo!"

\-\

Harry fell, purposely, out of the limousine and onto the ground that was a street near the Vatican. "It's like being on sacred ground," he sighed. "I feel blessed, like the patron saint of St. Jimmy."

"That doesn't even make any sense," Ron said, trying to pull Harry off the ground.

"No, it's holy ground. It must be worshiped," Harry said.

"If you keep worshiping the floor you'll never get to tongue the Pope's foyer."

"You're so right," Harry said. He pushed himself off the ground, using his cane as leverage and dusting off the front of his jeans. As soon as he was off the ground three men began to head toward them.

The first held out his hand to James who looked confused but shook it anyway. "It's wonderful to meet you Sir Potter."

"I guess so," James said, a bit confused.

"We were expecting the Savior to be too busy to come visit but when you replied we—"

"Oh, I'm not the Savior," James stopped him, realizing the mistake. "I'm James Potter. My son is the savior, Harry Potter," he said, pulling Harry over.

Harry smiled.

The three men didn't smile but looked confused. "You're a child."

Harry gaped, no longer smiling. "I'm going to be seventeen in a week thank you very much. And you should have known this already. Don't any of you read the paper?"

"It never said anything about you being sixteen."

"Well maybe you should look _harder_ next time. And do not insult my age, this is the first time I've been out of my house since the end of the war and you stupid religious prudes will not ruin it for me. And besides, it's probably not wise to insult The Savior. He could take it very badly," he said, glaring at the three holy men.

"Yes sir. If you would please follow us we'll show you where you'll be staying," one said nervously.

"Thank you." The three men led the way and the men followed, with Harry's two best bodyguards following with the luggage floating behind them.

"Harry, you do know you just insulted a cardinal right?" Fish asked.

"He started it. He insulted my age. I can't be the Savior just because I'm sixteen years old? They've never even left Vatican City let alone fought a war. I had to kill people for god, all they do is pray. No offense to the Pope."

Fish smiled and put his arm around his friend's shoulder. "That so enlightening Harry. Stop thinking so much, you're supposed to be here to relax. If you go back home with an aneurism Bonnie is going to kill me."

"Right, relax. We're relaxing and maybe while we're here we'll get some kind of religious tattoo done on holy ground. Wouldn't that be awesome?"

"You have a cross tattooed on your back. What else could you get?"

\-\

"That was so enriching," Harry said, walking through the door of his "hotel" room that he and Fish were staying in. Currently everyone was there as they had been talking while Harry was at his meeting with the Pope. They all looked up. "I can't wait to go to heaven."

"You're not going to kill yourself now, are you?" Sirius asked.

"No. I haven't had sex yet and I refuse to die a virgin. Besides," he said, dropping his cane on the floor and falling onto the bed, "suicide is a sin and I'll be sent straight to Hell."

"So I'm guessing you had a nice time with the Pope," James said, sitting at the end of the bed with Sirius.

"You don't even know who the Pope is, do you?" Harry asked, curious yet expecting to be right.

"No I do not and no I do not need enlightening. I worship Merlin and you worship some weird God no one has ever seen. I'm fine with that."

"The Pope says that Merlin was the bastard son of a demon," Harry said. "But I worship Merlin to. Shh, don't tell him," he whispered the last part, putting his finger to his lips.

"You worship two Gods now?" Sirius asked.

"Well I don't really worship Merlin but I do praise him on being so good to me. Kind of the same way I praise Da Vinci who saved my life and Merlin saved Bonnie's. God saved everyone else's life. It works out so well!"

"So now that you've met the Pope what are you planning to do?"

"Well, before we left, I had Avin give me a little talk about the Vatican, because he's been here many times and I thought that tomorrow we could go to a whole bunch of churches. Or me and my bodyguards can because I don't know if that'll bore you. But then on Wednesday I thought I would give _myself_ an early birthday present and go to a very famous tattoo parlor and get another one."

"You want another tattoo?" James asked. "I haven't even seen your first one."

"It's just a cross. I'm not sure what I want this time but I have a whole day to think about it. What do you think? Then we can all get one," he said excitedly, sitting on his feet.

"I already have enough tattoos," Sirius said.

"You have room for one more."

Sirius rolled his eyes and lay back on the opposite bed with James.

\-\

Bonnie followed her mother down the hall with a very unhappy look on her face. She hadn't been having a very good week with the fear of her future husband going insane and all and now her dear, already insane, mother wanted her to join the lovely debutants of Pureblood Land. Devil Nanny was following behind Bonnie with her evil pleased smile.

"Mother, the war just ended. Is it really the best time to do all this?" Bonnie whined as they headed down the hall of the house, following the woman who had prepared the dress selection.

"Of course. Why not now? You're turning seventeen, you have a serious boyfriend, and everything is going fine. It will get your mind off this marriage thing."

"Marriage _thing_? Why are you saying it like that?"

"Well I just thought it was strange that you and Harry were thinking of marrying so young. You're just now turning seventeen. It was just a silly idea. I'm glad you realized—"

"We didn't realize anything. Just that we would have more time to plan our perfect wedding. Age had nothing to do with it. I would have married him when I was eleven if it had been legal," Bonnie said angrily, stopping in the middle of the hallway, refusing to follow. Her mother looked behind her before turning and sighing at the hurt look on her daughter's face. "What happened to the oblivious mother who only wanted me to have a good piece of mind?" Bonnie asked angrily.

"I just want to make sure you make the right decisions. What if you want to get a job before you get married, you won't know if you get married too soon," her mother said, walking toward her.

Bonnie backed up. "You've been spending too much time with the pureblooded community of women. Have you joined a sewing circle yet?"

"Young lady don't talk to me like that!" her mother said angrily.

"Then stop talking to me like you're a normal and sane person. I don't like what this war is doing to everyone. We're all supposed to be happy and carefree, not losing our minds. Not you to mother," she said, sinking onto her knees grabbing at her curls. "Next thing you know you'll see me at the breakfast table with straight black hair and bright pastel clothes in polka-dots and stripes and I'll be fashioning the latest ballet flats. I liked it better when we were at war. Everyone was acting normal," Bonnie said, starting to sob at the floor as she wrapped her arms around her waist.

Ms. McNeal quickly headed over to her daughter and kneeled beside her and put her hand on her shoulder and tried to pull her into a hug. She ran her hand over her daughter's curls. "I won't force you to do the debutant ball if don't want to," her mother offered.

Bonnie laughed slightly through her sobs at the small offer her mother gave to fix the problem. "Oh God."

"Would it make you feel better if I told you to calm down or you'll be stressed forever?"

Bonnie smiled and nodded slightly.


	31. I'm Seventeen!

Chapter 30

I'm Seventeen!

Harry sat in the tattoo parlor chair holding out his arm to the artist as the man drew out the new design on his upper arm. He watched over his shoulder to make sure he liked what was being put there. It had taken a while to decide what he wanted to brand his arm with, there had only been one thing he had been sure of since he was fifteen and that had been his religion. Since then he had been sure of two things, St. Jimmy was going to lead the world out of the war alive and that he loved Bonnie more then life itself. Sadly, getting your girlfriend's name tattooed on your arm felt a little tacky to him and he knew Bonnie would say the same thing. (Though if he ever felt like getting another tattoo it would probably be that). So he did the less tacky thing and branded his nickname onto his shoulder instead. _Sir St. Jimmy and Hell's Angel. _Written in Beeswax (their made up language).

And Bonnie's to. It was his arm; he could do with it what he wanted. He looked over his shoulder at the tattoo that was being finished up on his arm. His nickname was carved in straight bold letters and Bonnie's nickname was carved in swirling Da Vinci like scripture. The tattoo artist finished off, painting the ending of the 'L" in "Angel" in pink. The color Harry most remembered her in before he turned her into a punk.

He couldn't wait to show Bonnie. The others (his father, Sirius, Fish and Ron) were all out discussing him apparently. Harry had the strange feeling they were planning his birthday party but he would have to turn them down, as he didn't want one. He knew exactly what they were planning to. Liquor he had to throw up and probably a strip bar he would just now be old enough to get into. Though they might be saving that for his bachelor party, which he will also turn down. While he was here at the tattoo parlor he had also stopped to get a new piercing. His lip 'stud' was starting to annoy him and he switched it for a normal lip ring that wrapped around his lip instead of just sitting under it. He liked it better, and he hoped Bonnie did. He was going back tomorrow. They had postponed his tattoo for when he had planned it because he had had another meeting with the Pope.

Sadly, the Pope wasn't all Harry had expected from him after the first meeting. Now he was asking him if Harry would be the 'poster boy' for Catholic religion. Sadly, Harry did not exactly believe some of the things that they wanted him to promote. Such as all people having to worship the same thing. Harry didn't believe that, he believed that when you died, whatever religion you happened to have believed in, had it not been in God himself, God would forgive you. It was perfectly fine for people to worship whatever they wanted as long as they believed in something spiritual, otherwise life was just boring. So, politely as he possibly could while talking to the Pope, he declined the position. As much as he loved religion he didn't want to work for the people who worked for God. He liked to think of himself as an 'under the table' employee. Anything else was just too much.

The Pope asked him to think about it.

When his tattoo was finished he paid the man before heading out of the room and to his car that would take him back to the Vatican. They were leaving promptly at ten tonight to make it back to England by morning. Soon, he would be back by Bonnie's side. He couldn't wait to be near her again. He missed her terribly. It was times like these that made him wonder how he had ever gotten through those five years without her. Prose slithered out of his pocket as he roughly fell back in the seats and looked up at the ceiling. Prose crawled over his arm and up to his chest and curled up there. Harry stroked his finger down Prose's back sighing as his anxieties withered away.

"Prose?" Harry asked him quietly.

"Yes master?"

"Do you think the Pope is mad at me for turning him down? God won't hate me because I disobeyed his human employee, will he?"

"I don't know. He could kill you off and break his promise now that you've done what he wanted you to," Prose said callously.

"Prose!" Harry yelled, poking his snake in the side to chastise him.

"I am sorry master but I could not resist. I don't know about the Pope but God will not hate you for turning down the Pope. I doubt he even notices the Pope. You're much more important."

"Well _now_ you're just sucking up," Harry said.

"You stopped stroking," Prose said, wiggling his waist.

Harry laughed quietly and returned to stroking Prose's back. If snakes could, he swore Prose would be purring. In fact, he swore he heard some strange sound from him. "That better be some form of Snake purring."

"Aren't you a strict Catholic? You shouldn't be thinking such dirty thoughts," Prose muttered.

Harry smiled at him and continued to pet him while he thought of his future wife.

\-\

When they got onto the plane Harry sat by himself and let Prose sit where Bonnie would have sat if she had been traveling with him. He put on his headphones and leaned back in his seat and listened to My Chem's latest song, Welcome to the Black Parade.

Fish, Tim, Tom, and Rom watched him from the seat behind as they all sat in a row. Sirius and James sat in the row beside Harry's. (The guards sat in the back of the plane watching.) The young group stared at their friend who didn't seem very happy to be all alone, even though he had insisted on sitting by himself.

"He looks lonely," Ron whispered.

"He just misses Bonnie," Fish explained. "I think he has separation issues."

"She's his other half," Tim said.

"Prose is taking her seat," Tom added.

"Maybe he is going insane and he needs Bonnie, otherwise he'll get overly lonely," Fish said.

"Poor Harry," Ron said.

They all stopped talking when they heard a great sigh and fumbling in the front seat. Harry leaned over the back of his seat and glared at them angrily. "_I_ am not deaf, and I do not appreciate hearing you whisper about me behind my back. So. Cut. It. Out," he said, thumping them each on the head with his book with each word. He then sighed angrily as the others rubbed their heads. He turned back around again and whacked Fish in the head with his hand. "And I do _not_ have separation issues. I can be perfectly fine and content on my own," he said, sticking out his tongue and throwing himself back into his seat.

When they landed at the airport Harry was quickly ushered, surrounded by his six guards, outside and into his limo. Luckily it didn't take as long as any normal flight would as they had a private plane.

"Sir Potter, could you please make a statement?"

"What are you doing now that the war is over?"

"Are you ever going to make a speech to the people?"

"Get away from me," Harry responded, letting Prose slip onto his shoulder, which shocked the reporters for a few seconds, long enough for Harry to get away from them, as Prose had grown into quite a large snake. When they got into the limo Harry sighed and laid back on one of the seats. James moved beside him and let him use his leg as a pillow as he ran his hand through his son's hair. Harry fell asleep the entire ride home, as did Fish and Ron.

\-\

When they arrived home Harry found out from his mother that Bonnie was at home and Harry quickly climbed into the floo, even if it was two in the morning. I don't have separation issues I just miss her, Harry told himself as he stepped out of the floo. He walked down the hall and headed upstairs quietly, suspecting that her father wasn't home but he wasn't sure where her mother went at two a.m. He headed upstairs and found the red door with the golden handle and released the charm on the door with wandless magic. He then slipped inside the room and closed the door behind him.

The boxes in the room had all been removed and all Bonnie's knick-knacks were spread about the room and all her expensive presents from her father and mother and all the small gifts she had ever gotten from Harry for anything at all. Harry smiled.

He turned to her bed and saw Mooshie- mooshie asleep at the end, his eyes blinking open to see who had intruded his new room. Harry scratched his ear as he walked over but stopped as he walked up to Bonnie, who was facing him. He sat down on the edge of her bed and looked down at her as she slept. He ran his finger down her cheek and moved one of her curls away from her face. He leaned down carefully and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. She sighed.

Harry smiled. It was only two o'clock so he didn't want to wake her up. He carefully stood from the bed and set his cane down against the wall and removed his jacket before crawling onto the bed behind her and cuddling close to her back to spoon her. He wrapped his arms around her waist as Bonnie moaned and snuggled back against his chest in her sleep. Harry placed a kiss on her shoulder and along her shoulder blade as he breathed in the scent of roses that surrounded her.

"I missed you," he heard Bonnie say.

"I thought you were sleeping," Harry said, looking over at her as she still had her eyes closed.

"You woke me up," she said, looking over at him.

Harry smiled. "I missed you to. So much. Fish and the guys were making fun of me on the plane ride here saying that I had separation issues."

"Aww," Bonnie smiled, turning over to face him. "You had Prose with you though," she said, running her hand up his chest.

"Yeah."

"So how was your meeting with the Pope? Was it all you hoped it would be and more?" she giggled.

"It was alright. Our first meeting was awesome, so insightful, I got to ask all the questions I wanted and I felt so close to God, I swear. Though not as close as when I had that vision."

Bonnie nodded. "But…"

"But then our next meeting he asked me if I would be the poster boy for Catholic religion, though not in those words. But I had to turn him down because they wanted me to promote everyone being Catholic but… well you know my beliefs on that. I'd like to stop the wars over religion but making everyone believe something they probably really don't isn't the way to do it." Bonnie nodded. "So I told him I couldn't do that. He didn't seem very happy and he seemed to be putting on a fake, calm smile for me."

"I'm sorry, kumquat," she said, running her hand over his hair. "He was like your idol huh? And he just went and ruined it for you."

"That's alright. I still have Da Vinci," Harry said, running his hand up and down her arm as it rested on his chest and she laid her head on his shoulder, "and unless I find something incriminating in that book I don't think he has a chance to disappoint me." He ran his hand over her wrist and traced the intricate design of her "slave bracelet." At least that's what the muggles called it. He ran his fingers over the thin chains that ran up her hand to the engagement ring he'd given her. He supposed that the "slave bracelet" name came from the fact that since the person was engaged they were taken. He liked this bracelet and its meaning. No one would take her away from him.

He turned his head as Bonnie nuzzled into his neck and closed her eyes. He rested his cheek on her head and closed his eyes as well, appreciating the fact that when he woke up she would still be right there on his shoulder, or at least by his side, not 1oo miles away. Maybe Fish was right, maybe he did have separation issues.

He turned his head and kissed her cheek before falling asleep.

\-\

"Harry," Bonnie whispered quietly in his ear. "St. Jimmy," she tried again, louder. She sat up in bed and looked down at his sleeping face. He was currently lying on half of her nightgown and clutching her hand making it impossible for her to leave the bed. She looked to the door that seemed so far away. She had to get dressed before her father came home with some number of politicians. She looked down at Harry and smiled sneakily down at his chest. She placed her beaded hand on his abdomen and then slowly slid it down his waist making him moan at the sensual contact. She smiled devilishly. Harry would kill her if she did this to him while he was awake but there was no harm in touching him when he was asleep. She moved her fingers under the hem of his shirt and slid her fingers over the first part of his abdomen. She could feel the thin trail between his abs as she ran her fingers up to his chest and her thumb up his center. Harry whimpered at her fingers and the feel of the chains tickling him.

As she got up to his pecks she found herself getting a bit turned on but couldn't pull herself away. She leaned in and placed a light kiss on Harry's lips. As soon as she did Harry quickly responded and pulled her into a passionate kiss as his hand reached up to her neck to pull her closer. She smiled as she found him awake but not in the position she had wanted him. He slowly moved her onto her back and shifted over her so her legs were between his. He ran his hand into her hair moving it away from her neck as he kissed down her jaw and to her neck.

"Harry," Bonnie gasped; his skin still under her fingers as he kissed a sensitive area under her ear. "I need to get dressed."

"Then why were you trying to feel me up in my sleep?" Harry asked, placing a kiss on her lips before pulling away.

"I had to wake you up," she said, questioning her answer.

"Oh. And… this was your best plan?" he asked, pulling away to sit at her waist.

"I probably could have thought of something else but I was desperate," she said, looking down.

Harry climbed off her lap and sat down and then lay back at the foot of the bed. "Go ahead and get dressed. I won't look," he said, putting his hands over his eyes. He waited with baited breath for her to slide off the bed and walk to her closet. Instead he felt her lips back on his for a light, loving kiss.

"You can look if you want to," she murmured into his ear, before crawling off the bed.

"What?" Just as he was uncovering his eyes to question her Bonnie was slipping her nightgown off her shoulder and almost revealing her chest to Harry. "Oh God!" He threw himself onto his stomach and pressed his face into the sheets so that he couldn't see with his palms pressed over his closed eyes.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and sighed deeply turning back to her closet.

"Bonnie, please don't do that to me. This is already hard enough; do you have to tempt me?" Harry asked angrily.

"You don't have to be such a goody-goody," Bonnie said, pulling on her jeans, which she hadn't worn in three years when a guy had tried to pick her up on Beauxbatons' visit to Durmstrang. They still fit well enough. She pulled on a black T-shirt with colorful shooting stars across the chest. "You can uncover your eyes now," she said, annoyed.

Harry looked up slowly and sighed in relief before he actually looked over her outfit, terribly confused. "You're wearing pants," he stated dully.

"So?"

"I've never seen you wear pants before," he said, stunned.

"These are my PMSing pants okay?" she said, pulling on her red Dock Martins over her pant legs.

"You don't PMS," Harry pointed out.

"Well some times I feel the need to pretend I do okay?" she said, angrily heading toward the door. "Now hurry up. We have to get you out of my house before my dad brings the politicians over," she said, opening the door while grabbing her purse off the floor nearby.

Harry jumped off the bed and grabbed his jacket and ran out after her. He grabbed her arm and pressed her against the wall causing her to drop her bag in surprise, scaring Venus who was sitting inside. "Bonnie, please don't be angry at me. I'm sorry but… I can't. You know I can't."

"I know," she said, lowering her head. "I just…now that I have you, it's hard to control myself," she mocked, stealing his words.

"I know, very well now thanks to you. Slipping your hand into my shirt while I'm sleeping. You're a very naughty girl," Harry smiled, tickling her side slightly.

"Harry," Bonnie giggled loudly, trying to hold it in as she pushed his hand away. "We're in the hallway."

"And?" Harry asked, tickling her side again as he held her against the wall with his other hand.

"Harry!" she giggled loudly, the only thing keeping her off the floor was Harry. He suddenly stopped and captured her lips while she was holding her side. She quickly calmed down and wrapped her arms around his neck as he ran his hand into her hair. They stopped as there was a flash of light in front of them. And then another as they turned to face a camera man, a reporter, two politicians, and Bonnie's father who looked uncomfortable.

"Who knew we would run into the savior while we were at the Prime Minister's house?" a politician said.

"Who knew we would get such a scoop?" said the reporter.

"What scoop?" Harry asked angrily.

"The Savior is dating the Prime Minister's daughter," the camera man said, "that scoop."

"You're not putting that in the paper," Harry ordered.

"You may be the Savior but you can't stop us from exploiting your personal life for our paycheck," the man said.

"You sure?" Harry asked, pulling out his wand.

"Oh come on," the reporter said. "It's just an article. People were bound to find out sooner or later."

"Look, she's wearing an engagement ring!" the camera man yelled, shooting another picture.

"Run, Andy, run!" the reporter yelled, running behind his partner as they made their way down the stairs.

"Harry, get the film. I'm wearing jeans!" Bonnie said.

By the time Harry made it down, having to rely on his cane to make it down the stairs and made it down to the entrance hall both men had gotten outside and apparated away. Bonnie stared at the empty doorway. "I'm going to be on the front page of the magazine wearing _jeans_. I WEAR A SKIRT EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE BECAUSE I FEAR THIS MOMENT AND THE DAY IT HAPPENS I WEAR JEANS!" she yelled. "Mother is going to die. Fluer is going to make-fun of me and use this against me on my wedding." She suddenly passed out into Harry's arms.

"So you're really engaged?" a man in an expensive suit asked as he stood beside Cameron.

Harry looked up slowly and glared deadly at him.

\-\

"The Savior and the Prime Minister's Daughter"

Photo confirmation tells us that Sir Harry James Potter, the Savior of the world, is now dating the Prime Minister of England's daughter, Ms. Bonnevilla Jackeline McNeal Price, who is known in the wizarding world as a wealthy pureblood. But if her father is a muggle that makes her a half-blood, unknown to her schoolmates at Hogwarts. We must wonder if Sir Potter knows this little fact. Since not only is Sir Potter _dating _Ms. McNeal but they are also engaged. (Photograph of ring and slave bracelet below.) It is unknown how long the two have been engaged and there is no word of when the wedding will be as Sir Potter wasn't exactly accepting to this article in the first place. This puts a damper on the Prophet's plan for a coming out party. It is confirmed that he has won Hottest Bachelor of the Year. It is being speculated though, whether this is right or not as Sir Potter is not exactly a bachelor any longer. Unfortunately our other contender is still no where to be seen.

Besides these facts, girls are questioning whether Ms. McNeal is the right girl to make a wife for him. Maybe they're just jealous or maybe they're right. It has been family tradition for centuries for the McNeal clan of women to never wear pants to clarify their femininity. If she can't even keep the tradition alive, how will she be able to deal with the pressure of being the Savior's wife?"

\-\

"The rest is just a large bashing of Bonnie," Fish said.

"I can't believe I wore jeans outside of my bedroom. In front of my future husband no less," Bonnie cried. "I've disgraced my entire family."

"I'm sure they'll understand," Harry said, trying to calm her down by pulling her into his arms as they sat at the breakfast table. "Don't listen to the stupid papers."

"No, they're right. You deserve better than anything I can give you. Please excuse me," Bonnie said to the others, pulling away from Harry and leaving the table quickly, trying not to cry while still in the room.

"Bonnie! Come on!" Harry called, jumping from his seat. "Fish catch my phone!" Harry said, throwing the ringing phone over his shoulder to Fish as he left the room.

Fish caught it easily in his hands and looked at the caller ID. "It's Antics! I don't speak German," Fish said, staring at the phone. He picked up the phone. "Hello? St. Jimmy's busy at the moment…. HE IS _BUSY_. _AT_ THE _MO_MENT."

\-\

Harry followed Bonnie into her guest room upstairs and watched her slip down onto the floor and folded her arms over her head as she cried. Harry closed the door behind him and walked over to her, kneeling on the floor beside her and pulling her close to him, even as she resisted, till she was sitting on his lap and sobbing into his shoulder while he whispered calming words into her ear. "Shh, it's okay. You can't listen to what the paper says about us and about what some random girls think. They don't know us, or me. How would they know what's right and what's wrong? It's just our choice to make and we both chose this right?"

Bonnie just continued to cry. "But they're right. I can't live up. I can't even provide you any children to carry on your name," she sobbed.

"Sirius, my brother, can carry on my name. I told you before that it doesn't matter to me. Besides, we can adopt if we decide to have children. Everything will be fine pet, I promise. We just have to forget all the newspapers and public and think about ourselves first. It's our turn to decide what we want right?" He stroked his hand down the back of her hair and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Besides, I lost you twice already and I'm not going to lose you again. So you can't leave alright?" he smiled.

Bonnie sniffed and wiped her tears smiling as she looked down. She nodded before pulling herself back against him and wrapped her arms around him.

Harry wrapped his arms around her waist and ran his fingers up and down her spine. "Everything is going to be perfect pet, as long as we're together."

"Did you know that when we were younger I always had this fear?" Bonnie said, pulling away slightly so that Harry was still holding her waist and she still had her arms wrapped around his neck but she could look at him easily (even though she was staring at her legs). "I was always so jealous when I saw all those other girls with you. You always had a new girlfriend, even though we were like nine years old," she giggled. "The one thing those professors told us that ended up being true."

"About us going after relationships faster," Harry laughed.

"Yeah. See, I would have but I was stuck on you and I wouldn't dream of having anyone else. I mean, at some point I knew I would have to find someone since I always thought you would end up with some perfect model or something but…I always _dreamed_ of ending up with you."

"I'm really sorry about dating the other girls. I know you were jealous, I could see it. But that's the reason I didn't have girlfriends for very long you know. They usually got jealous of you and how I would always ask for your opinion and never there's and how I would pay attention to your needs more then there's. You were always mine. Didn't you ever guess that after a while when I would never leave the other boys alone with you. Why do you think you never had a boyfriend? You were always very attractive pet," Harry smiled, pulling her closer. "_You _could have had anyone that you wanted. So, in many ways, I am the lucky one."

"I still think I am. You're quite a catch you know. The public, of all people, are discussing whether or not I'm good enough for you. Girls all over the world are fighting for you and here I am, in your house, sitting on your lap. Do you think I should just suck it up and quietly mock the other girls in French?" Bonnie smiled.

Harry nodded eccentrically with a smile.

"Les filles excentriques stupides essayant d'armer mon fiancé doit mourir d'aides," she said evilly.

"That's really mean, pet. That's why I love you." He leaned in and gently kissed her lips. "Besides, I don't think any of those girls could possibly love me like you do. Especially with my horrible, gimpy leg."

"There is nothing wrong with your leg. It'll be fine by time school starts."

"I doubt it. If it hasn't gotten any better by now I don't think it'll get better within the month. But I'll keep my hopes up," he sighed.

"You do that," she smiled and returned his gentle kiss running her fingers around his neck.

\-\

Later that night, after everyone had gone to sleep, (or crossed the street to their own house where St. Jimmy's minions had bought their house), Harry crept out of his room in a T-shirt and boxers and down the hallway toward the nursery where his little brother was sleeping. It was right across the hallway from his parent's room so he stepped quietly, leaving his cane in his room to make less noise, and silently pushed open the door and stepped inside. He closed the door behind him and stood in front of the door to look around the room. It looked like a baby room, he had to wonder if his room looked something like this when he was young but he couldn't remember anything of then. The walls were a very light blue, symbolizing a boy apparently, and there were stuffed animals scattered everywhere, from when Lily had been playing with the baby earlier. A rocking chair sat in the corner along with an old-fashioned cradle that rocked and had little colorful items hanging from a mobile. There was an old-fashioned, black buggy in the corner near the large window where the curtains hung.

Then, in the center of the room, sitting on a Persian rug that was probably once a flying carpet, was a white crib lined with baby print sheets. Through the bars, he could see inside, his baby brother slept soundly under his small blanket, his small chest rising up and down.

Harry slowly crept away from the door and over to the crib and looked down at the sleeping newborn. The poor child had to end up with red hair and brown eyes and he didn't look a thing like Sirius. "You poor, poor child," Harry said, shaking his head as he smiled down at him. "When you get a little older and you actually start caring what people think about your looks, I'll convince dad to go against mom and dye your hair black," Harry said, pulling a chair over to sit in front of the crib. "That way you can be a clone of our dad, just like me," he laughed. "Except, you do have his eyes."

He watched silently for a moment as his little brother continued to sleep soundly. "You can never tell anyone that I came in here to see you on my own. I'm not supposed to like children. Why would I want to visit you? All you do is slobber and poop. But when you're not screaming... maybe you're not one of those screaming children, you're a good listener. You know Bonnie wants to have babies. I don't think I want to have any children, and she can't really have any. I know we'll probably end up adopting but… why does everyone have to keep talking about having children anyway? That's almost six years away. I'm not having any kids in my teens, why is everyone so worried?"

He looked down at his little brother who was still asleep, free from all the worries that were now swirling around Harry's head.

"If anyone ever says something to you, in the forms of being sorry you weren't the lucky one, or why aren't you as famous or as powerful as your brother. You just tell them, "I am the lucky one. I have nothing to live up to, no one to watch me make a fool of myself while I try to succeed, no one to fail, no one to lead, no one to save, nothing to do but what I want to." You're very lucky, little Sirius."

Little Sirius made a light gurgling noise in his sleep. Harry reached into the crib and stroked the baby's forehead, where Harry's scar was on his forehead. Where his scar _wouldn't_ have been, had he been born the normal son.

"At least the war is over now, right? I don't have that to worry about anyone anymore. Now all I have to deal with is the public and the knowing suspicion that they're all waiting for me to do something else to amaze them. They haven't announced it yet but I know they'll be talking about it soon. When will I make an announcement? I haven't spoken to anyone about what happened in the palace. At least not in detail. "All the bodies," is what I said to my therapist before I insisted we move on. The public and the politicians are soon going to be begging for me to say something, especially after they've run out of things to gossip about me in the newspaper between engagement and wedding announcements. They'll realize they don't actually know how the war was won, what had happened, how it started, and who will they want to hear it from?" He waited for an answer but continued on. "That's right, me."

He sighed and leaned back in his seat. He pulled his knees to his chest and put his face in his hands. "Look how far I've fallen after the war. I'm expressing my fears to an unconscious infant." He lifted his face from his hands as he heard a queer giggle emit from the crib. Harry looked up to see the small baby looking at him from between the bars of his crib. Harry pointed his finger at the boy through the crib. "You don't tell anyone about this, got it?" The small boy giggled lightly and tried to fit his small pudgy fist through the bars. "You're going to be daddy's Merlin worshiping son aren't you?" Harry said, taking the small fist. "He's going to love you and you're going to get to grow up with him. He's going to teach you why he believes in what he does and he's going to have time to tell you the history of his pureblood religion and you're going to be closer then I will _ever_ get to him. You'll never have to be jealous of your famous older brother because you'll always know in your unconscious that you have… what he's always wanted."

His little brother watched him carefully as Harry ran his thumb over the back of his hand. "I'm not gonna hate you, because I don't. But I will be jealous of you and I'm not going to show you any affection when others are around." The small baby was trying to roll onto his side and sit himself up to get a better look at his brother, or to show off his pouty face. Harry stood up. "We should both go back to sleep now huh?" He picked Sirius up and laid him back down in his crib and replaced his blanket. "I'll see you tomorrow Sirius. And remember, this is between us," Harry said, pointing to his brother and then back at himself and back and again. "Goodnight Sirius," he said, before limping away from the crib and toward the door. When he stood at the door and looked back at the crib, Sirius looked to be asleep already. He opened the door and crept out.

\-\

"He's going to wake up. Grab his clothes."

"Is he actually this skinny?"

"Don't move Bonnie," whispered the voices quietly.

"I'm already awake. Where are you taking my fiancé?" Bonnie asked, sitting up in bed and glaring at Harry's father, Sirius, Remus, Fish, Ron, Tim and Tom.

"Nothing. We're just taking him out for a little birthday surprise."

"Exactly what are you going out to do at 1:00 at in the morning?" she asked.

"We're taking him to a strip bar, okay?" Harry's father said.

"What?"

"Stealth man, stealth," Tim and Tom said together.

"He's not going to be happy if he wakes up in a strip bar. He'll wear a blind fold and keep his hands in his pockets while he calls the rest of you sinners."

"Probably, but at least the rest of us will be there."

"Disgusting perves," Bonnie said. "You can't have him. Go away." She lay back down and Harry unconsciously pulled her back into his arms while he was sleeping.

"He's my son. I can do what I want with him."

"He's seventeen now."

"And? Your point is what? He's asleep, how will he know?"

"I'll know because you all talk really loud," Harry said, still looking as though he were asleep. "I don't see you being a prankster dad, you're really loud."

"Way to go Mr. Potter," Fish said, smiling slightly at the lunacy of kidnapping his hardcore Catholic leader to take him to a strip club on his birthday.

"How about just a bar? You can now legally drink."

"That will make me hyperactive," Harry pointed out.

"What else are you allowed to do legally once you come of age besides go to bar and look at porn?" Fish asked.

"In the U.K. we usually just have extravagant parties, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Well just ruin the surprise why don't you? Come on, we just need to get you away for a few hours so that your mother can plan the party. We don't have to go to a strip bar. We can go where you'd like."

"I want to go back to sleep."

"You can sleep in the limousine. Now get out of bed," James said, patting Harry's shoulder and waiting.

Harry sighed and kissed Bonnie's bare shoulder. "Love you," Harry said sleepily as he crawled out of his comfy bed.

"Love you to," Bonnie groaned and snuggled into the blankets. Once Harry's space was left Bonnie's dog, Mooshie-mooshie, crawled up to the top of the bed and curled up just below his pillow and right against Bonnie's back.

Harry angrily took his pants out of Fish's hands and a shirt out of Sirius's before leading them out of his room. He headed into his bathroom to dress and brush his teeth while the others headed into the hallway.

"Night, night, Lady St. Jimmy," Fish laughed as he walked out the door.

Bonnie glared at him through the darkness but she smiled against the pillows as she lay back down. It wouldn't be long till her dream of having that name was reality. She opened her eyes again as she felt someone lean over the bed. Harry ran his fingers over Bonnie's curls till she turned onto her back to look up at him.

"I'll see you later at the party, okay?" he said, kissing her. "And I won't go to any strip bar. Promise."

Bonnie laughed. "I believe it."

Harry smiled and kissed her again. "Wear something red or blue to the party okay? I like those colors on you."

"I'll go shopping with Ginny today before the party. I think your mother's gone a little insane anyway with her party plans. I heard her and my mother talking about an 1800's French theme."

"That should be interesting. Make sure I'm not being forced to wear anything stupid okay?"

"No problem. I had to help out anyway. I know all the names and numbers of your friends."

"Don't they all live across the street?"

"No, all of your other friends too. It's a big party Harry, and you have a lot of friends. I only called the ones that speak English though. We can see the rest at the wedding."

"Good plan. I should get going now. See you later." He placed a kiss on her lips and left.

Bonnie smiled and turned pulling Mooshie- mooshie to her chest. "I'll be St. Jimmy's wife Mooshie-mooshie. I'll be the best wife ever," she smiled, hugging her little dog.

\-\

Harry went out into the hallway and up to the small group.

"What's the book for?" Sirius asked, pointing to the large leather bound book in Harry's hand.

"It's the St. Jimmy book. I'm going to do some paperwork in the car. Now that I'm up. Are we going?" he asked, walking down the stairs first and taking his time with his cane.

"I guess so," James said before following, collecting Harry's guards from the second floor as they headed down. They screened Harry as they got into the limo and he climbed into the back and Fish and Ron shoved past his guards to sit beside him. The guards sat at the end of the limo near the door and Ron and Fish sat more like guards on either side of Harry with Tim and Tom beside Fish, following was Sirius, Remus and James.

Harry opened his book as they started moving and grabbed the pen hanging from the side of the book and turned a whole bunch of pages before starting up on a half filled page.

"What are you writing anyway?" James asked.

"I'm filling in the criteria of the war. I was a little busy to do it before and I just remembered."

"Why do you have to write it down? I'm sure it's in some historical book somewhere now."

"Yeah, and now I have the only recorded document of the war written by the person who won it. Besides, it's like the St. Jimmy journal. I make a record of all the things we did in the group. Including all Sober Day's and trainings and a whole bunch of other crap." He looked up from the book and turned to his guards who were wearing all black suits. Two had black hair, one blond, and one with light brown hair; they all wore sunglasses as though it were three in the afternoon.

"Are you people from the Men in Black movie or something? It's one a.m."

"We'd like to stay incognito sir," one said.

"Alright, but this is going to be your picture and this is the picture you're displaying to future Potter's and the one I will see the rest of my life. Little Sirius will have no idea what my sturdy bodyguards looked like," Harry said, putting the pen to paper.

The four men sighed and took off their sunglasses and put them in their pockets.

"Thank you. You can look menacing if you'd like," Harry joked as he sketched out his bodyguards on the side of the page. "What are you names again?"

"Addison Badey."

"Chip Dasin."

"Greer Lawsin."

"Hirom Gardner," they all said.

"Thank you," Harry said, writing them all down. "So where are we all going anyway? And since I highly doubt mother will start planning my party at 1:oo a.m. why did we get up so early."

"You'd be surprised how early your mother would get up to plan a party. She plans to cook all your food," James informed.

"Oh goodie. Make me fat with all mum's cooking," Harry said. "Where are we going?"

"We already told you. We're headed to a strip bar."

"I'm taking out my contacts if you keep saying that and then I'll cut out my ear drums."

"That's a little drastic."

"If we go to a strip club I'm calling all of you sinners the whole time as I pray to God to forgive your sins."

"Fine. Won't bother me."

"Fine, you can drop me off at a church."

"Oh give him a break Mr. Potter," Fish interrupted. "The boy is going to have an aneurism. I once tried to tell him about this awesome girl I had at school once when I was fourteen and she was really awesome you know. Well he just sat there with his St. Jimmy stick and his fingers in his ears saying la la la la la la la. Then when I was finished he tried to attack me with the St. Jimmy stick for trying to make him a sinner."

"So you don't care that everyone else is a sinner?" Remus asked.

"Fish isn't a sinner. He's just a sex addict. It's not his fault God made him that way, right Fish?" Harry joked, fluffing Fish's hair.

"Shut up, Harry. I was defending you."

"Was not. Anyway, it's not a huge deal anymore because Fish is now in a very healthy relationship. I'm so proud of you," Harry said, wrapping his arm around Fish. "Oh, I should add that in." He turned back to the book and started writing again.

"So, what about this girl," Sirius asked, turning to Fish.

"I'll tell you later at Harry's party. Can't upset the leader."

"It's alright Fish. But if you use the word erection more then once I will tell everyone what your name is."

"Gotcha. So anyway, there's this school for girls across the pond from St. Brutis's. The boys there call it the Naughty Girl School. They all wear uniforms. So anyway, this one girl made it up to my room after a dance one night without being caught and we…."

\-\

"That's so nasty Fish. Where do you get these things?" Harry asked, holding his hand to his mouth as though he was going to throw up.

"Experience. And some of the girls across the street are French," he smiled.

"I don't know why that means anything," Harry said confused.

"Never mind," Fish said as the older men smiled. "But you will thank me for being me on your wedding night when you have no idea what you're doing," Fish said.

"Yes I will. Until that day I don't want to hear much else of your sex stories."

"I thought it was hot. Don't you love the French?" Sirius asked.

"You know Bonnie's aunt is Irish, don't you? Even if she lives in France," Harry pointed out.

"Well… she speaks French. And she lives there. That's got to mean something."

"It doesn't have to. Bonnie lived in France for five years she didn't even know how to kiss. She also went to America for a summer," Fish said.

"That's Harry's fault."

"That's true," Harry said.

"You know Harry has snogging stories. Why don't you share one of those?" Sirius asked.

Harry smiled. "They're not all that interesting. Unless you call snogging a thirty something year-old woman who had her shirt open in the back of a tattoo parlor interesting," Harry said, looking at his book. He looked up to see them all staring at him, waiting.

"Oh, you want to hear?"

"Duh!" Fish said.

"Fine. Well, Ron was there for a while and then she asked them to leave and…."

\-\

"We should really stop talking about sex," Harry said after everyone leaned back in their seat with large mocking smiles on theirs faces. He knew they found it hilarious that he called them all sinners but he lied about his age and turned a woman into a pedophile. (Well, almost. They only made out. I'm not sure if that's illegal.)

"You have the most awesome life Jimmy," Fish laughed, rolling around in his seat.

"Shut up Fish. She was manipulative."

"Oh yes, and little Jimmy just wanted to get out of those tight pants didn't he?"

"Why do you assume its little Jimmy?" Harry asked, offended. "Oh my God, this is like Jerry Springer. Let's get onto a new topic."

"I know! I heard the women talking yesterday and apparently the theme of the year is 1700's France. And your mother decided to get creative so I think she's going to add some kind of your personality to it," James said.

"Which side? God worshiping or punk with a lip ring?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure but I'm really hoping it's not the first one."

"Surprisingly, me to. I don't think it'd mesh well."

"We're here sirs," the driver up front said over the speakers.

Harry looked around. "We have a really nice limo. Where are we?"

"Ministry of Magic. We made you an early appointment to get a legal apparition license," James said.

"Oh, why can't I just keep going around illegally? Its much more fun."

"No. And we made it really, really early so that there would be way less chance for paparazzi to follow you."

"Oh, thanks a bunch. I'll be going outside this early for the rest of my life to avoid cameras." They all piled out of the car and Harry was quickly followed by his tightly knit group of guards as they headed up to the phone booth that quickly grew larger to accommodate them. James picked up the phone first and spoke into the receiver. "How much more muggle can you get?" he asked himself, surveying the phone booth as though he'd never been there before.

"Ministry of Magic Service Entrance. Please state your name and the names of those present," said the voice over the receiver.

"James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Ron Weasley, Tim and Tom…. Umm."

"We don't have last names," they said together.

"Tim and Tom something, Fish something, and Harry Potter."

Suddenly the phone booth shot up a few feet and then transformed into a small but spacious waiting room. "Please collect your tags and take a seat please," said a new voice over the monitor.

They all looked around but before anyone could take a seat they arrived at the bottom floor of the Ministry and the doors shot open like someone had pried them open with excitement. They were greeted by a spunky and overly happy woman with brown hair and deep blue eyes, and a personality to remind you of someone visited by Ed McMan. (The million dollars guy that shows up your doorstep with a big check.)

The boys in the elevator all looked at each other confused and a bit apprehensive to step out of the elevator. So she walked right in and grabbed hold of Harry's arm. "It's so wonderful to see you here Sir," she said, pulling him away from the group causing his guards to quickly follow.

Harry gave a face of disgust to his arm and pointed her hand that was on it. "Um, please don't touch me."

"Oh! I am so sorry sir!" she said, pulling her arm away. "It was not my place to touch you. I'm so sorry."

"It's alright, just don't," Harry said, watching as she practically broke herself in half bowing to him. She stood straight again so fast Harry was forced to take a step back, moving against his guards. When she smiled at him he had no want to step forward again.

"Your apparition instructor is ready sir, if you'll follow me," she smiled, heading down the hallway.

Harry took a step away from his guards as Fish and Ron stepped beside him and the older men followed behind the guards trying not to laugh for Harry's benefit.

As they walked down the hallway they noticed that there were a few extras here this morning other then the regular working late alcoholic. It was maybe two in the morning and the only person that should be here in Harry's opinion was Mr. Weasley, who's job had become more important now that muggles had more knowledge of wizard stores and items, and maybe the Minister. And of course the apparition test people. But tonight the halls were crowded with people who just seemed to be here to watch him walk the hallway. Some people even bowed, getting down on their knees even and pulling their friends and co-workers down beside them.

Harry hadn't seen such acts since his knighting ceremony. Course he hadn't been out of the house since then, except for the Vatican but that's private and closed off. Harry kept his eyes off the people, unsure how to respond to people bowing at his feet and staring at him like he had three heads. When they finally came to the apparition office the woman walked right in a meeting the man was having with a certain woman. They weren't exactly discussing much, if you catch my drift. They quickly broke apart as the large group was led inside.

"Sir, The Savior is here for his test."

"Of course," the man coughed. "Maria, we will continue our discussion later."

"Yes, later," she smiled before fleeing the room, giving a quick curtsey to Harry who was trying so hard to hold back his smile.

"If you would take a seat Mr. Potter the rest of you can wait in the waiting room."

"Hah!" James laughed. "You don't think we'll leave him in here alone do you?"

"Dad, its fine. The guards will stay with me," Harry said, sitting down in one of the chairs.

James looked at the sturdy guards and then to the man at his desk. "Fish and Ron will stay to." Harry rolled his eyes but summoned an extra chair and the two took their seats. James and the other two then left the room, looking unsure.

Once they were gone the man turned quickly to Harry. Everyone seemed edgy and quick today. "Mr. Potter, my name is Henry Groff. Now before we get started I need to ask you some questions. First, have you ever apparated before?"

"Yes."

"Good. Have you ever taken this test before? With any other instructors?"

"Um, no. I just turned seventeen."

"Of course. Last question." The man walked over and kneeled at Harry's feet holding out a piece of paper. "Can I have your autograph?"

"What does this have to do with apparition?" Harry asked, looking down at the man with his eyebrows etched in confusion and disgust.

"Um, nothing actually. I just wanted your autograph. My daughter admires you," he added.

"Do you have a picture of your daughter?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Um… sure. Of course…" he said, looking around.

Harry sighed, frustrated. "Look, sconner¹, I just caught you with your pants around your ankles with a fellow co worker, which isn't really the proper way to greet someone. And then you have the audacity to ask me for an autograph for a daughter you don't have?"

"I'm sorry sir, it was out of place," the man said, bowing his head to hide his red face before standing and turned away.

"Yes, it was," Harry said, looking at Ron and shaking his head like the whole thing was nuts.

"Who do you give autographs to?" the man asked, pushing his luck.

"Sir," one of the guards interrupted. "This is not an interview. You're to give Mr. Potter his test, pass him, and then we'll leave. Any personal matters or questions you may have you are going to keep to yourself until a proper interview or press conference is commenced. Do you understand sir?"

"Yes, I understand," he said feeling stupid after being talked down to. "Um Sir Potter. I'm going to give you a list of places to go to. Since you'll most likely be trampled if you go alone, your guards are allowed to follow you but in no way are you allowed to side apparate."

"I don't think I'll need to."

"I'm just going through procedure. Here is your list. There will be people at your apparition point who will give you points for how far off or close you were." He walked over and handed him the list. "You may start now."

Harry turned to his guards. "You two stay here and make sure Mr. Sconner doesn't do anything to my friends. And that they don't do anything to him," he added before apparating to the first point and the two followed.

\-\

"I didn't notice him being bald," Remus said, as they crawled back into the car.

"Neither did I, but he didn't deny it," Harry laughed.

"Maybe he didn't know what you were saying?" Fish offered.

"I think he did. Most people who don't know usually say "huh?" or "what?"." He just gave in. Where are we off to next?"

\-\

Harry laughed when he looked in the mirror at his hair. "Wow, I should wear it like this all the time," Harry said, poking the tip of his new Mohawk. The stylist had now shaved off one inch of his hair but had folded all of his hair to the center and pushed it into a straight line down the center of his head, which he enjoyed because if he had gone bald on either side of his head he would have had a horrible mental picture of the apparition instructor with his pants down.

"You do it justice darling," his new French hairstylist told him. "It's very you. Trés chìc."

"Good. And I had no idea my hair was so long," he said, standing up. He walked over to Fish who was still, at the moment having his hair slicked back in a very large motif poof. Harry fell against the wall with laughter. Fish was blond and he had slicked back hair. He had a sudden mental image of Fish and 11-year-old Draco Malfoy complimenting each other on their great hair.

Fish tried to turn to face Harry to glare but his stylist made an angry irking sound and forced his head straight again making Harry burst out laughing again. "Sir, get off the floor, you'll ruin my artwork," his stylist said, pulling him off the floor as he laughed.

"Shut up, Harry," Fish growled.

"Aww, Fish, it looks awesome. Malfoy has nothing on your hair."

"Thank you. I think they want you in makeup over there," Fish said, pointing to the corner.

"Ooh, we're going back to eyeliner I'm guessing," Harry said, heading over to his chair where they applied just that. He didn't need much else as his pale complexion was void of any flaws.

"You have the best skin I have ever seen," said his makeup artist.

"Oh, thanks. Bonnie and I blame it on our lack of sun sex," Harry joked, remembering what Fish had called his and Bonnie's fear of sunlight. That was the week he compared everything to sex or made it into a type of sex. Sun sex was like tanning and if you had too much it gave you cancer. Bonnie and Harry had a lack of sun sex, among other types, which meant they wore black to attract the sun but covered every bit of skin so that the sun couldn't touch but only looked. Bonnie's big black hat was later named the sun sex condom that week. Which disturbed the passerby's who heard the small bit of conversation between the ten-year-olds.

"That's funny. I'm quoting you on that."

"Oh, that's a great way to ruin my image. Maybe I should take up smoking and tell the pope I'm not Catholic anymore."

"Is that your way of telling me not to use that word?" she asked, hesitantly.

"No, go right ahead. But it's not my word, its Fish's. I was just saying I don't think I can ruin my image. Do you think I can?"

"Maybe if you went insane and followed in the footsteps of the man you killed," she said, brushing his eyebrows. "Other then that. No, not really."

"Goodie, I'll stop worrying about my stupid gimpy leg."

"Your makeup artist is the first person you listen to," Sirius asked, sitting next to him.

"Yes, because I know she'll be truthful. Bonnie made herself happy that she knows she doesn't care about my stupid leg but that doesn't make me feel better because I already knew she would feel that way. Now I have an outside source, she says I can do nothing wrong, so I'm going to carry the stupid cane with pride and then run a hundred laps around Hogwarts school grounds once my leg is all better, which better be soon because I need a source for my stress."

"You poor thing. I like your hair."

"Thanks, yours is awesome too."

\-\

Harry slid on his suit jacket with tails over his New Order T-shirt and buttoned it at the waist letting the rest hang open. He was basically wearing a suit and a tie, he just happened to be wearing high-tops and a band T-shirt with it. Fish and Ron were dressed closely the same. Tim and Tom were dressed in matching outfits with matching hair-dos.

"This is fun," Fish said, checking his hair in Harry's mirror. "You know once you walk in that room everyone will be bowing at your feet."

"Please don't point that out. I'm kind of hoping the other people won't follow when my "followers" kneel on the floor. And if they do they better get back up real fast or it'll make me uncomfortable."

Ron patted him on the shoulder as they headed out of the room to meet their girlfriends downstairs. Once near the main floor they could see the party in the ballroom. Lily was waiting outside the door along with Ginny, Hermione and Bonnie. The three younger girls each had tall and extravagant hairdos that defied gravity as they were filled with feather or pearls or such. They had large extravagant gowns that seemed to have a punk edge to them that wasn't swiftly identified.

Bonnie's dress was, as Harry had requested, somewhere in the dark blue family. Her dress itself was huge and bunched out at the hip and then fell in a circle around them to the floor. The top was a tight corset though Bonnie, or her spiritually, strict, pureblood tradition loving mother, made sure that nothing looked like it was sluttish and nothing showed too much. She was well covered up. She also went out of her usual makeup regimen and wore thick black eyeliner and her lips contrasted a deep rose red against her naturally pale skin.

Harry thought he would have fallen down the stairs at the sight of her if he hadn't been gripping his cane so tightly and pressing it into the floor. He continued down and the girls looked up from their conversations as they heard them all coming down. Bonnie smiled and ran over to the stairs to greet Harry on the stairs. Harry smiled as she stepped up close to him. "Happy seventeenth birthday Sir St. Jimmy," she said, curtseying. When she stood up their lips were practically touching. "You look very cool in your suit and your sexy Mohawk."

"Yeah?" Harry asked, practically purring as she leaned closer and he could smell the strong aroma of roses she had obviously rubbed near her neck. "I love your outfit to. I fear you might be a bit taller then me though," he said, looking up at her tall hair.

"Hair doesn't count."

Harry smiled and pressed his lips against hers in a soft kiss, taking in her scent. Until they were interrupted.

"Harry, your guests are waiting. You and Bonnie can snog each other later," Lily said, lacing her arm with James's.

Harry and Bonnie pulled apart, Bonnie blushing slightly, adding to the red in her outfit. She laced her arm with Harry's as he took the last steps off the stairs. The others hooked arms with their dates (Tim and Tom were with Kim and Pim "the metamorphoses,") and headed toward the ballroom. Everyone went in before Harry and then Harry and Bonnie followed like some kind of ceremony, which apparently they were in the wizarding world. But Harry was pretty sure that once the man of the hour entered the room, usually the guests didn't kneel onto the floor and stay for five seconds before standing again. Harry was guessing the other guests were taking hints from Harry's followers, who normally bowed when they saw him on special or unexpected occasions. He felt a bit uncomfortable about being in this large room with all these people bowing. His followers bowing to him never fazed him as he got used to that and he usually bowed back but he didn't like the other bowing, it was different. But a stroke from Bonnie's hand against his palm as she went to lace their fingers made him feel better until they all stood up.

After a few seconds the music started up again and family was the first to come up to him. His mother first. "I love you Harry. I'm so proud of you. You're all grown up," Lily said, tightly gripping him in a hug.

"It's alright mum," Harry smiled, hugging her back as she started to cry.

She quickly pulled away. "I'm going to make all my makeup run," she said, daintily wiping a finger under her eye. "You're such a good son," she said, kissing his cheek. "Don't forget to greet your guests," she said strictly, going back to mother mode. She smiled at him before walking away. James was trying not to laugh at his wife as she turned back quickly and pulled Bonnie into a tight hug to and started crying again. "You'll make a beautiful wife doll," she said. She pulled away with a sob. "Why isn't it tradition to do this at the end of the party?" she questioned, teary eyed and ruining her makeup.

The nanny (also Lily's handmaid) was trying so hard not to giggle while she handed Lily a compact where she desperately tried to hold back more tears and fix her makeup with her wand.

Bonnie giggled and whiped at her eyes. "Your mother is going to make me cry to."

James laughed and pulled Harry into a hug at the same time. "I'm very proud of you son. I couldn't ask for anyone better to be my first son. I'm sorry I couldn't be there when you needed me most but it seems you worked things out for yourself pretty well. I'm very proud and I hope you soon stop complaining about your cane. I think it suits you. And after your big lavish wedding that I know you're planning you're welcome to any one of the Potter vaults," James smiled. "You can have your pick like my father let me."

"Thanks."

"And I'm also proud that you're willing to wait for marriage, it's very noble," James added.

"Mother made you say that, didn't she?"

"Yes she did. Pretend it came from me okay? I still don't understand but whatever makes you happy. I'm proud of you and… don't ever tell little Sirius, but you'll always be my favorite."

"Isn't that what all parents tell each of their children? In a few minutes you'll go tell my brother the same thing even though he won't understand."

"That's not true," James lied, refusing to look him in the eye. "Have fun at your party. And don't touch the presents," he said, walking away to see his wife.

"What presents?" Harry asked, looking around.

"They're over there kiddo. It's that giant wall of colorful boxes in the corner," Sirius said as him and Remus came up together. Sirius looked like he was going to fake crying. "And to think it was just a few years ago you were short, awkward, and a dork."

"Only in school," Harry defended.

"Well that's when I saw you. Let me finish. And now you're almost taller then me, which I'm very angry about by the way, you can tell your God I cursed him. And you're going to get married and they call you Sir, even if they're older then you. You're such a little weirdo and it would make me very happy if you admitted that a part of it came from your fun-loving godfather."

"Sure, I'll admit it. Next year we'll go singing God-Rest Yee Merry Hippogriffs at Grimmuald Place."

"Oh goodie. I'll be waiting," Sirius said, inspecting him to see if he was lying. He then walked away and left Remus to be the last one to talk.

"Sirius needs his meds, the parties excite him," Remus joked.

"I'm glad you got to come, Remmy."

"I'm glad to. I hope you like the present Sirius and I got for you. It's very Sirius and me combined and it took a while to find that."

"Do I open the presents during the party?" Harry asked, confused.

"No, after. Otherwise we would all be here forever. I think someone counted a hundred presents so far."

"Ooh fun. Are you going to help me open them Remmy?"

"Oh of course. Why would I pass that up? I'll have to shove past your father though. He has this thing for wrapping paper."

Harry laughed and pulled Remus into a hug. Him and Remus weren't as close as the rest of his family but he hoped to change that.

After greetings with family he re-laced his fingers and arm with Bonnie's and went to greet his army members. Harry noticed a young girl gathered with some of his best American male followers. He turned to Bonnie and asked her who she was.

"Ganelle Huntrew, American, very new. She just joined about three months before sign of the war. Apparently she thinks she's all that according to Ma'am, and Omi gave her the nickname Orange. Don't ask me why, I don't know."

Harry nodded and they both headed over to greet them. The boys saw Harry first and quickly bowed. The girl followed shortly after. "Sir St. Jimmy, it's nice to finally meet you," Ganelle said, holding out her hand.

Harry lowered his head slightly giving a slight groan that she couldn't hear as he gripped Bonnie's hand. One of the boys behind Ganelle quickly slapped her hand down and coughed trying to point something out. It took Ganelle a second after she was glaring till she remembered. "Oh, sorry. I totally forgot."

"It's alright," Harry smiled. He never shook hands or made contact with new members. It took a long time for them to gain that kind of respect. "So you're new. How are you dealing?"

"I'm fine. The boys are being very nice to me. Besides, it's been three months; it's been real easy to settle in."

"Oh, usually they tell me everyone hates them. At least that's what Hanna told me."

"Well that's because everyone does hate Hanna," Bonnie pointed out.

"That's not nice pet, she's here."

"I don't know why? I don't remember inviting her."

"Fish did, he said she called and you skipped her. So he told her to just go."

"That little terd," Bonnie mumbled.

"So you two really are together?" one of the boys asked, pointing to their hands.

"Yes, we're getting married after the next school year," Harry said, squeezing Bonnie's hand.

"And why were the rest of us not told that you were even dating?" someone asked angrily.

"Because I was kind of busy running a war," Harry pointed out, with a fake smiled.

"Of course. Sorry sir."

"Sir, I'm new, as you know, and I was wondering if maybe we could get to know each other better, personally." Ganelle asked in French, leaning toward him a bit but not enough to give any clues toward Bonnie that she was flirting, oblivious that Bonnie knew French much better then Ganelle even spoke it.

Bonnie raised her eyebrows at the absurdity of the girl coming right out and saying that. Right in front of her no doubt.

Harry looked away from her, biting his lip. He let go of Bonnie's hand for a second and leaned forward to talk quietly to the new girl, who smiled slightly at the closeness. "If you ever say anything like that to me again, I'll have you on parole with Hanna. And trust me, it isn't fun." He stood straight again as the girl stood open-mouthed in shock. "And right in front of Bonnie to. She lived in France for ten years; you don't think she'd know what you were saying to me." He growled angrily and took Bonnie's hand to quickly pull her away with him.

"Ooh, you got in trouble," two of the boys sang. "St. Jimmy's gonna put you on parole." One boy turned to the others. "I heard some talking about Hanna's experience on parole. It's just gossip, but I heard that St. Jimmy keeps you out of all sober meetings, makes you go to parole meetings, and considers taking you out of the war. I don't know what he'd do now that the war's over. Not to mention you were flirting with him in front of his fiancé. He's getting married and you were flirting with him. You're going down," the boys said.

Ganelle rolled her eyes and sighed before walking away to go find this Hanna girl.

Harry went to greet the rest of his guests, every member of his usual group, a few politicians he didn't really know that well, a few members of press he ignored wondering how they had gotten in, and all the Weasleys. And an extra special greeting to Devil Nanny's boyfriend, who was her date for that night. (Devil Nanny had been invited because Harry's known her for a while.) The man had kneeled low on the floor at Harry's feet and Harry didn't even object this time.

Harry and Bonnie and some of the other teens finally got onto the dance floor once they stopped playing orchestra music and the sounds of the Decemberists' _We Both Go Down_ followed by _Naturals Not in It_ by Gang of Four, _What Ever Happened_ by the Strokes and _Ceremony_ by New Order.

When the party was over and a few people had already left some were ready to pass out in the corners and go to sleep. Harry stayed standing long enough to bid his guests' goodbye, without shaking their hands, unless he knew them, and thanking them all for their gifts. He then sunk down on the floor and rested his head on the arm of the chair Bonnie was resting in.

"That was a fun party," she said, turning her head to look down at him.

"Yeah. Good music." He turned to the pile of presents. "I wonder what the chances are that someone bought me the same thing as someone else."

"I'm too tired to do genius work," Bonnie giggled, slipping down in her seat, forgetting her pureblood ladylike posture as she stared straight ahead at the maids and house elves cleaning up the party already.

Harry smiled and took Bonnie's hand that was floating along the air as she wiggled her fingers like water along a stream, motioning to imaginary music. As he brought his knees up he rubbed his thumbs against the back of her hand as he held it with both before placing a light kiss against her pale skin. He held her hand and ran his fingers over her palm and around her knuckles sending small shivers up her arm.

Bonnie turned to Harry and watched him play with her hand while he was in some kind of thoughtful trance. Bonnie stood but kept her hand in the same position as to keep Harry's trace before joining him on the floor, letting her gown flow into a wide circle around her. She tilted her head and tried to look into his eyes. They were focused deeply on her hand but not really. He finally came back and looked up at her. Bonnie smiled.

Harry leaned forward and lifted her chin up to kiss her passionately on the lips. His hand ran down her neck as the kiss grew less passionate and more loving. His tongue lined her bottom lip until she separated her lips for him sending sparks to both their mouths. Bonnie leaned in to move closer to Harry's mouth just as he started to pull away. He looked into her eyes. "I love you."

"I love you to," Bonnie smiled.

They continued to smile at each other as they stared into each others eyes. Both entranced by the other's eyes they didn't take notice of the camera flash from the corner.

\-\

Later that night, after Bonnie had taken out her hair extensions and taken a shower to get all the hairspray out and changed into an "after ball" nightgown that was somewhat like her dress only silk and sleeker and burgundy and a white lace around the trimming. She wore it under a silk black robe as Harry just wore a T-shirt and pants to bed. And that's the way they passed out in Harry's bed after the party. At least Bonnie thought they had.

She woke silently while feeling no comforting, warm arms wrapped around her. She sat up in bed and walked around Harry's room and found him sitting at his small library reading as he leaned up against the wall. She padded barefoot across the floor over to him. He looked up from his book to her.

"I thought you were sleeping," he said.

"I thought you were to."

"I guess I'm still a little wired from the party," he said. He patted the floor beside him, indicating for her to sit with him.

She sat down beside him and folded her legs to her side resting her head on his shoulder. "Whatcha reading?"

"I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention," Harry said. He wasn't lying. She could see the fading number one at the corner of the page.

Bonnie smiled and took the book from his fingers. He didn't protest. "Let's go back to bed."

"Let's not. I'm still not tired. But you can go ahead if you want."

"No, that's okay. I'll stay up with you okay?" She pecked him on the lips before settling her head in his neck again. Fifteen minutes later Bonnie was fast asleep on his shoulder, probably uncomfortable. Harry decided maybe it was time to go to sleep since Bonnie obviously needed it and wouldn't sleep without him. He picked her up bridal style and carried her to the bed. Once comfortable beneath the sheets with Bonnie tucked in his arms he kissed her head and stared at the wall across from him for at least another hour before falling asleep.

1. Slang for a person without pubic hair. Harry is trying to get back to his natural roots of sarcasm and slang and swears.


	32. Who is St Jimmy?

Chapter 31

"Who is St. Jimmy?"

Harry sat down at the empty dining room table. It was after lunch and everyone had finished about two hours ago. Harry had missed it. He had been on the phone for an hour with a foreign group member who liked to argue for everyone about being the last to know about Harry and Bonnie's relationship and about not being invited to Harry's birthday party. He was really starting to find his other followers annoying. He only liked his close friends that he saw every day. The others just didn't seem to know anything about him even though they're supposed to be getting all this information from Fish, Tim, and Tom and anyone who passes it along after them. Even when they got the information they either didn't remember or didn't consider it. Like with the American girl and her ignoring his "non-touching on first meeting" rule, and her saying such things; like she hadn't gotten the whole rundown of rules when she was first initiated. Not being allowed to touch the leader when you first meet him was number one on the list. It was hard to predict how people would talk to him when they weren't going to follow the rules.

He sighed and dropped his head to the table. He needed something to amuse himself these days; otherwise he was left to his thoughts of hate and annoyance. Bonnie was off on some strange trip with her mother that had something to do with her coming of age. Bonnie had explained it as torture disguised as a "Beauty Knows No Pain" advertisement. She was basically dragged away by her mother as Bonnie told her purebloods were sick and twisted for their horrible and deranged traditions. "Why does Harry get a huge party and I'm getting tortured?" Apparently she would be gone for two days. Harry would need something really strong to distract him from the fact that he wasn't with her again.

"Baby, what are you doing in here?"

Harry looked up to see his mother standing in the doorway with little Sirius in her arms.

"I was thinking about eating, but now I'm really not that hungry."

"You want me to make you something? I know you'd love that."

"No mum, it's alright. I think I'll just, go up to my room and paint something or… something."

Lily smiled at him as he went to walk out of the dining room, messing little Sirius's hair as he walked out. Lily's smile widened and she looked down at her youngest son. "See sweetie, Harry loves you, doesn't he? Yes he does." She smiled and cooed to her little son as she too headed out of the dining room.

\-\

Harry sat on the corner of his desk sketching out a drawing that he was planning to paint on his wall where he had started something else but he didn't really like. And he wasn't sure if he wanted to paint it anyway, so he tested it out on paper. He thought it looked good so far but he wasn't sure how his father would react to it, or if he would even like it.

He looked up suddenly when he heard the door opening. A house elf he had never met stood at the door. "Sir Potter, Mister Price and Minister Fudge have requested a meeting with you. Should I show them to the lounge?" the house elf asked.

"No, that won't be necessary, send them up here," Harry said, turning back to his drawing. The house elf bowed and popped away to take the two men to Harry's room. Harry sketched for the next few minutes that it took the two men to climb up the stairs before they were led into his room by one of the guards that most likely met up with them on the house elf's way back up.

"It's alright Badey. You can leave. And please tell the house elf to bring up some tea," Harry said, without looking up, he seemed to be concentrating on his drawing. He configured two comfortable chairs and a table for the men to sit in while they waited for him. After a few moments he set down his drawing pad and pencil. "What can I do for you both?" he asked.

"You've been asked to make a speech." Mr. Fudge said blatantly.

Harry raised his eyebrows and looked to Price who wasn't about to argue. Harry looked away and sighed with a slight laugh, as though he found the entire conversation stupid. "No."

"Harry, the people were affected by this war to, they deserve to know what happened," Price said calmly.

"Well I'm _still_ be affected by it. Those people that you say are so affected by the war are busying their minds away from it and trying to break up my engagement with my fiancé. At the moment I really don't care about the people. I just care about keeping my sanity alright?"

"Harry, they're busying themselves with your life because they're waiting to see if they can bother you enough to make you spill something. If you would just speak to the people now they wouldn't be so forceful."

"Well maybe they should leave me alone so I can gather myself and then maybe I'll talk to them. I haven't even fully spoken to my therapist or anyone I live with about what happened during the war. I'm not about to express myself to the whole world. Half of which tried to kill each other. They deserve to suffer for a little bit after all they've all gone nuts on each other. I've suffered, they should to."

"That's not how it works Harry. You may have killed Voldemort but you're not finished yet. You have to explain yourself," Price said calmly.

"I will soon enough. Just not right now."

"What are you waiting for? Until you're ready to tell your therapist? You need to tell the people what happened; they have a right to know why they all went mad and why some of their loved ones died. You got lucky Mr. Potter, some people didn't," Fudge interrupted.

Harry stopped; he blinked as he stared at the Minister. "I always knew I didn't like you. Tell me Minister, what in God's name gives you the right to say I didn't lose anything? I can't even feel my right leg anymore and I've lost my privacy, along with a few other things that are just none of your business. Just because I haven't said anything to you doesn't mean I haven't lost anything or had any problems since the war. So why don't you just keep quiet?"

"Harry, that's no way to talk to the Minister. No matter how incompetent he may be," Price said, as Harry glared at the man and then walked away running a hand through his hair. "Harry, you don't have to tell them anything you don't want to. Just the fact that you came out to _try_ to talk to them and to let them all see you will be enough for them. Just fake a big smile, answer some questions, say that you have no response to questions you feel you're not ready to answer, they'll be forced to accept that and then you can go," Cameron said, noticing Harry looking a little relieved and thoughtful at this explanation. "Doesn't sound so hard, does it?"

"I guess I could do that," Harry said.

"I know you could. No one is allowed to touch you, you'll only answer what questions you want to, and we'll give some reporters some basis to work around. I'll make sure you're not pushed to answer anything you're not comfortable with okay? I promise."

Harry sighed and leaned against his desk again. He turned to Cameron. "When will this meeting be? I want to bring Fish and Ron with me. And Bonnie to."

"That's fine. It'll be held whenever you feel you're ready, though preferably before you start school."

"Alright. Do you mind if I take some time to think about it before I get back to you?"

"No that's fine. Get back to me whenever you need to. You have my cell number, you can call me whenever you decide a date." He stood up and shoved the Minister of Magic in the arm to let on that the man should leave. Badey was waiting outside the door to lead him back out. Cameron took his seat again.

"Thanks," Harry said, as the house elf popped in with the tea. Harry summoned up a chair for himself and sat in front of the table. "So was that all you wanted to discuss with me?"

"How is Bonnie doing?" Cameron asked quickly, sounding eager to hear about her. "You know I've been busy with all these meetings and compromises and the Americans and French are starting to get on everyone's nerves. None of them enjoying the fact that it was Britain who won the war," he laughed. He looked up at Harry solemnly. "I'm glad she has you to go to. Especially with that article thing that caught her in pants. My poor baby must have broken down," Cameron said, sitting on the edge of his seat.

"That's a bit of an understatement. But she's okay now I guess. Or at least she was. She didn't seem very happy to be going wherever Ms. McNeal was taking her," Harry said.

Cameron laughed. "I can imagine not. Not only is Bonnie not fond of McNeal pureblood traditions but the entire woman line of McNeal's will be there, including the evil Grandmother Grace. Or Grandmama Grace." Harry and he both shuddered. "You'll have to see her again at your wedding. Maybe before that. I'm so sorry Harry," he said, putting his hand on Harry's shoulder while trying to hold back his laugh.

"How is the old bat and how is she feeling about me and Bonnie's engagement?"

"Well according to the wife, Grandmama Evil faked a heart attack and passed out on that creepy old chair that only she can sit in. Apparently while lying in her hospital bed while the healers told everyone she was perfectly fine, she pulled Bonnie to her bedside and told her that she would leave her beautiful and favorite granddaughter every penny she had left after she died if she didn't marry you."

"That bitch!" Harry mumbled, sipping his tea.

"Yes, luckily Bonnie knows that if she accepts the money that she'll have a never ending debt to her grandmother, so she decided to keep you."

"Oh good," Harry smiled, though he knew she would anyway.

"Yes but then Grandmama Evil said, "oh my dear child, your little head is filled with sand and you're as dim as an acorn." So guess who's coming to your house?" he asked, exuberantly.

"No!" Harry said.

"Yes, Grandma Evil is coming to your house tomorrow afternoon for afternoon tea where she will take her time pointing out every one of your faults to my dear daughter who will drown it all out with thoughts of what wedding dress from Vera Wang she'll walk down the isle in."

"I knew this was coming. She can't hate me as much as she used to now that I'm The Savior though can she? I mean, who hates the guy who saved everyone's lives. Besides Fudge," Harry added.

"She does. She's, in a metaphorical sense, the woman who shot J. F. K. _because_ everyone loved him. That was just America, how do you think she feels toward you now."

"How's Bonnie dealing with that?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard anything since that. Apparently my wife was calling me as it was decided and then Bonnie said something about you in the Vatican and I think Grandma Evil had an actual heart attack and she had to hang up."

"Uh! She's just jealous that I got to go and she didn't. It's not all I expected it to be. Don't tell anyone, but his holiness is a bit of an arsehole. He wanted me to be the poster boy for his thought of Catholic religion but I turned him down and now he's mad at me."

"Ooh, don't tell Grandma Evil that."

"Merlin, no! She'd murder me."

"Yes. I'm sure you're not too excited to see Bonnie come back now are you?"

"If only she wasn't bringing her grandmother with her."

"Yes, and it's horribly depressing that they actually love each other so much so you can't be mean to the old bag or Bonnie will get angry. I hate that."

"We must suffer such horrible things while we wait for her death."

Cameron laughed and two continued to talk well into the hours.

\-\

After Cameron left later that day Harry was meeting up with the family in the dining room. He sat down across from Fish and looked down at his plate as his food was set down in front of him. He picked up his fork. "Fish, guess what?" Fish looked up. "I was talking to Bonnie's father this afternoon—"

"Why?" James asked quickly.

"Him and Fudge came to talk to me about making a speech to the public and all. I haven't decided yet though. But anyway, we got on the subject of Bonnie and her little trip with her mother, and guess who else is on this little coming of age trip?"

"Who?"

"Grandmamma Evil."

"No!"

"Yes."

"Who's Grandmamma Evil?" Remus asked.

"Bonnie's grandmother," Tim and Tom said together.

"You call her Grandmamma Evil?" Lily asked. "That's a bit offensive."

"That's what everyone calls her. Unless we're around Bonnie. Bonnie loves her grandmother. She once caught me calling her grandmother that and she put this potion in my drink that made me sing in Latin whenever one of our professors asked me a question, which resulted in numerous tests because you know… freaky school. But anyway, she's evil and she hates everyone, especially me. She thinks I'm a miscreant and likes to remind me as often as she sees me, which isn't often, thank _God_!" Harry emphasized.

"She likes to call me by my name," Fish said, disgusted.

"_Which is what?_" Ginny stressed.

"_Johnathan_," Fish lied, stressing it out as he smiled.

"That's your fake real name," Ginny pouted.

"It's the only name she knows and she refuses my given name. Just like she insists on calling St. Jimmy either miscreant or Harold."

Harry turned to his father. "I would take miscreant any day." He turned back to Fish.

"She does know that Harry is your name and it's not shortened from Harold or anything right?" Lily asked.

"I'm pretty sure she does. She just likes to torture us. And she can't even tell Tim and Tom apart; lucky," Harry said. "But we're getting off topic. We lucky people, being as very lucky as we are, are at liberty to have Grandmamma Evil over for Afternoon tea tomorrow. Aren't we all excited?" Harry smiled.

"We've just now been informed that we're having a guest?" James asked.

"Are you ever informed when people move into your house, let alone come over for tea?" Harry asked. "I was just told an hour ago. Grandmamma Evil is not one for caring about other's plans. If her own calendar is empty that's good enough for her. Besides, she'll be back in France again the next day and she needs to sit at a table so she can point out my faults long enough to help Bonnie realize she's making a bad decision. So I get to sit at a table with an evil woman who doesn't like me and is trying to ruin my engagement for at least four hours while she tells me what a piece of shit I am. I think I might just hit myself with my own cane and then go have a drink," Harry said with a large smile.

"If you get hung over when she's here it'll keep her over for another hour," Fish said.

"Yes, but if I give myself brain damage with my cane I'll be able to _block it all out_."

"Doesn't Bonnie notice how much you hate this woman?" Sirius asked.

"No. Bonnie thinks I take it all in good fun. And if that's what keeps her happy, I'll let her keep thinking that. Even if her grandmother makes me think of my uncle in the example of mental abuse." He looked to Fish. "Don't you love life?"

Fish smiled evilly at him as Harry smiled evilly back.

"Fishy, you have nothing against raiding my future wife's room, do you?"

"Nothing at all as long as you stop calling me Fishy," Fish smiled.

"I think its fun."

"Harry, it's very inappropriate to invade a girl's bedroom," Lily said. "It's private."

"Not Bonnie's. She shares everything with me. Though if she knew I was going to look for one of her potions to torture her evil grandmother I don't think she'd approve," Harry smiled.

"Harry, you're meeting the in-laws. You're not allowed to torture them, you're trying to make them like you," James said.

"I've already met them all. I liked Bonnie's grandfather but he divorced Grandmamma Evil for the same reason everyone hates her. And I met Grandmamma Evil and she already hates my guts and has no intention to change her thoughts about me. And I've met her parents, her father loves me and her mother… well I don't know about her but I guess she likes me."

"What about Cameron's parents? Bonnie's other grandparents?" Lily asked.

"I don't know. Bonnie's never spoken about them. They could be dead for all I know. I asked her once but she just said she's never met them and changed the subject. You don't think it's some strange thing about the Price side of the family do you?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, Harry. But if they're family won't you want to invite them to the wedding? You may want to discuss this with Bonnie," Lily said.

"Well duh. But you never know what you can and can't discuss with her. Like the children thing. Sometimes it makes her cry and sometimes she'll just blow it off like it's nothing. She's strange like that. That's why I love her. We're meant for each other," Harry smiled, dreamily.

"Yeah, you got that part right. You'll get married and both go off in cahoots together," Fish said.

"Um Harry," James said, as though he had a sudden revelation. "What are you going to do with Bonnie's grandmother while you're in your therapy?"

"What do you mean?"

"Josh is coming over tomorrow. Remember, it's Thursday after your birthday so your regular scheduled appointments are back."

"Then I'll go to him first, earlier then usual and then she'll come over and Josh can stay for tea if he wants."

"Aren't you afraid that Grandmamma Evil will use your therapy against you?" Ron asked.

"No. Maybe she'll praise me on finally trying to get my insane thoughts in order."

\-\

"Harry, I want to ask you a question," Josh said, wandering around the ballroom and pacing in front of Harry's chaise lounge that he was laying on. Josh had found that Harry babbled less when he wasn't in such an enclosed space, so they had moved their meetings to the ballroom.

"Go ahead, you're the therapist," Harry laughed.

"Um, why haven't you opened all your presents yet? It's been almost seven days since your birthday."

Harry looked around the arm of his chair at the large pile of presents sitting in the corner of the ballroom. The only reason he had even touched them was to count them and they had found 6oo even though there were not 6oo guests at the party. Some of them had come through owl post and from the mailman and added to the pile. "Oh that," Harry said, lying back down.

Josh stopped pacing and looked at him. "Yes that. You haven't even opened your parent's presents to you yet."

"Well I've just had so much to do so I've just procrastinated it all."

"Harry, according to your family you haven't done anything lately, except sit in your room and visit the Pope."

"Yes well… I'm just such a horrible Savior. I hate my fans and some of my followers. I haven't even checked up on all the other countries to make sure everyone is still _alive_ and I haven't checked up or done anything I was planning to. I was just so stocked up with things to do I just procrastinated it all and sat around complaining instead. And now I fear calling my followers because they all probably hate me and I do love my fans but I fear they'll all be obsessive freaks so I want to ignore them and pretend to hate them," Harry groaned, turning to breath into the pillow.

"Wow, that's a breakthrough. It was so much harder to get through Sirius," Josh said, pacing the floor again.

"Tim and Tom say I babble when I know I'm screwed. Like Bonnie when she's angry."

"Oh yes the… swearing in French.

"Harry, do you know what would make me happy," Josh asked, kneeling beside Harry.

"A raise? A non-psychotic mess of a client? The power to quit a job you hate?" Harry guessed.

Josh smiled and shook his head. "No. It would make me happy if you would open one of those presents. Any one of them. It can be from one of the people you don't know."

"_That_ will make you happy?" Harry asked.

"Yes, it will make me very happy," Josh said.

"Fine, I'll open a stupid present." Harry climbed off the lounge and walked over to the pile, levitating a small one from the top and into his hands. He pulled the blue wrapping paper off quickly and looked at the new OkGo cd. "I'm so excited. I already have this cd. I'll send it to less fortunate people," Harry said, sitting back down in his seat and throwing the cd to Josh.

"I like this band."

"You have it then."

"Who's it from?" Josh asked.

"Vanessa Therams," Harry said, looking at the wrapping paper. "I've never heard of her."

"Harry, I thought you loved your fans."

"I do. But I like to listen to their views on life and things and I like to hear people talk and even complain. I don't want them to send me presents and hear how much they love me."

"Well that's what fans do. What you want are philosophers."

"People are philosophers. Have you ever met a person who didn't have at least one different view on something than you did? Anyone with an opinion on anything is a philosopher. I believe that."

Josh smiled and sat down in his own chair. "You know, there are some people like that, like you, who like to hear people's views no matter what it is on. No one is like you of course but some people think like that. And those people have already had the chance to hear a lot of regular views on life and things and those people sending you presents, the normal people you like to listen to, your followers, the people you don't know, even me. We like to hear you talk. We enjoy listening to your opinions. And right now, at the end of this war when people are still in mayhem trying to figure out what to do with themselves and how to go on with their lives, how to move on after loosing what they've lost, it's your job to talk. Not to listen. They need to hear what you have to say, they don't need someone to listen to them, they need someone to give them hope that they'll all move on okay because you're there for them."

Harry looked over at him, turning his face out of his pillow. "People don't want to hear me talk anymore. I've gone insane and everything I say is mental. I used to be normal and people used to fight for my attention. I don't think they'd want to anymore."

"Harry, you're not insane. And I like to hear you talk. That's why I don't hate my job. And you know Fish will do anything you say."

"Yeah, that's different though. Fish is a loyal friend now, not a loyal follower. I don't have any loyal followers besides Tim, Tom and Toilet. Avin's nice but he could leave me at any time. I'll die soon, I swear he'll never catch fire."

"Are you afraid you're losing your followers?" Josh asked carefully.

Harry sighed. "I fear some of them may be plotting my imminent death but I doubt that they'll leave me. I'm just losing assurance of how committed to the group they are. Maybe they think that now that the war is over I'm just going to be everyone's friend and when Sober Day comes along and one of them is drunk when I'm calling them I'm just going to say, 'hey, it's alright. The war is over. Go ahead and drive home drunk and go get some alcohol poisoning.' But the group is more then that. It's supposed to create unity and keep people from being alcoholics or druggies like their parents. It wasn't just to fight in the war with me. That was just an extra to joining. Fighting in this large war showing everyone and yourself that you meant something to this world. You helped saved the world. I think some of my followers never got that memo, which makes me a little disappointed in them."

"Like the girls who hit on you in your group when they know you're engaged."

"Yeah, it's like they don't respect me at all sometimes, they just want me to sleep with them. I think sometimes they just join the group so they can tell all their other friends that they get to talk to St. Jimmy whenever they want."

"People are just suddenly annoying you all the time now," Josh mused with a smile.

Harry glared at him but couldn't deny that it was true. "I think that it's because I don't have enough to do with my time. My procrastinating personality these past months has sucked all the life out of me. I need to do something with my time other than whine about people."

"That's a good idea," Josh smiled.

\-\

Bonnie ran into the entrance Hall when she saw Harry, Mooshie-mooshie running in after her, his little feet scattering to a stop at her feet as Bonnie wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped into Harry's arms.

"I missed you so much," Bonnie said quickly before forcing Harry's head down into a passionate kiss. "You have no idea how many things you can realize you love about a person while my grandmother points out their faults," Bonnie giggled while being completely serious.

Harry just smiled and lifted her chin for another 'I missed you dearly' kiss. They didn't let go of each other for three whole minutes, only separating for fleeting seconds to get oxygen. And that was how they were found when the other McNeal women stepped into the hall at the same time the Potter's and family joined them.

Someone coughed. Harry knew that cough as he quickly felt Bonnie pull away and turn toward the evil Grandmamma Evil. Harry simply hated this woman but even after three days listening to the woman criticize her choice in husband Bonnie seemed to love the woman.

She stood at the door, her chin held up in a demeaning manner pointing out as soon as she entered the room that she was rich and she was better then you in every way. Voldemort would have died of annoyance if he had met her. She would have criticized him till he crawled right into his own grave. She had blond hair, practically the same color as Fluer's but Harry knew the woman was no Veela. She wore an expensive white Vera Wang dress and she looked anything but her age. She had probably had a thousand de-aging treatments done while she was in that hospital for her 'heart attack,' not that it would be anything new. Harry remembered when he was younger he would go over Bonnie's house when her grandmother was there and, while smiling from a large amount of Botox, she would tell him what a dirty little demon he was in a menacing tone. There was nothing scarier.

She wore masses of jewelry that Harry knew she must have worn only around him to show that she was better than him and his family. She used to when he was younger and wore ripped jeans just to make him feel bad. Now she did it to show Bonnie that he was wrong for her and could never provide her all the jewels that she wore. Not that Bonnie would want them as she wasn't old or a jewelry person.

She turned to him. "Bonnevilla, step away from the dirty boy, you'll ruin your new dress," her grandmother said stiffly.

Bonnie looked at the floor blushing, ready to step away but Harry held her back.

"I'm not dirty," Harry said roughly.

"I'm sure you aren't Harold," she said, pulling Bonnie away from him.

"It's Harry, and it's Sir Harry to you."

The woman smiled and gave a slight laugh. "You won't force a rich old woman to call you such a thing. I'm your fiancé's grandmother. I can call you whatever I like," she smiled. "Now, where is my tea?"

"Would you like it in the parlor or the dining room?" Lily asked, always the gracious host.

"Well aren't you adorable. In the dining room would be fine, thank you, dear. And you are?" she asked Lily.

"Lily Potter, Harry's mother. And you know his name is Harry, not Harold," she clarified; smiling fakely as she could already tell the woman was fake.

"Ah, the muggle born," she said scornfully, in a manner that made it hard to tell whether she was being rude or nice. "You did well for yourself, marrying into a prestigious pureblood family didn't you? Just like my own daughter, marrying a filthy muggle, no magical ability at all."

"Grandmama!" Bonnie said angrily.

"Oh, sorry dear, I forgot you were there. You know I don't mind your father. Just that he agrees with your horrible taste in boys."

Harry growled and grabbed Bonnie away from her grandmother. "We should go drink tea now. Maybe it'll make us all a bit more pleasant. Not that it's possible for some of us," Harry said angrily, walking as straight as he could toward the dining room, as he had refused to use his cane in front of Bonnie's grandmother.

Bonnie's grandmother turned to James. "And you must be James, Harry's father. He looks just like you. Pity, it's so bad for your name. Even if you disowned him they'd all know he was your son. Now, why don't we all go enjoy our tea? I do hope it's good," she said, turning down the same hall Harry had.

James looked at Sirius and Remus. "You're dating into this family too you know," he said to Sirius.

"I'm going to have nightmares," Sirius said.

"Oh don't worry your pretty little head over it," came a voice behind them. Everyone left in the entrance hall turned to see Jackeline and Bonnie's mother.

"Are all the McNeal's coming over?"

"Of course. We're here to take the stress off Harry. Our mother can be quite the dragon at times. The only man she ever liked in our family was my ex. Ironic, isn't it?" Jackeline smiled. She walked up to Sirius and took his hand. "But now that I've divorced the bastard she really doesn't care who I marry. According to her she has failed as a mother and all her daughters and granddaughters have horrible taste in men."

"Is Fluer coming as well?" James asked.

"No, only we should get in there before Harry gets enough courage to whack my mother with the St. Jimmy stick," she said, letting Lily and James lead them toward the dining room. When they got there Harry was already fuming and sitting on the opposite side of the table as Bonnie's grandmother, as far away as he could get from her and Bonnie was sitting next to him like a good fiancé while Fish sat on his other side.

"So what have you all been talking about?" James asked as he sat down at the head of the table.

"How Bonnie's Grandmother has so many similarities with _Satan_," Harry mumbled, getting a shove from Bonnie.

"Harry," she reprimanded.

"Now there's no reason to do that dear. He just wasn't brought up right; he doesn't know how to act properly."

"Apparently neither do you as you insult me as much as I insult you. More actually, as I actually care how Bonnie feels about my comments," Harry said to her.

"I'm an old woman and you are seventeen. It is my right for living this long to be able to say whatever I like."

"Nobody asked you to live this long," Harry said coldly.

"Well nobody asked you to make it through the war," she said.

"Actually Bonnie did. And so did my parents, and some of my followers and my friends."

"Fish how do you feel about Harold still calling you a follower," she asked, him.

"I don't know a Harold," Fish smiled.

"Fine, Harry."

"I don't think I know that name either. We just know him as St. Jimmy. You know he's very strict, if we call him something else we'll all be punished," Fish lied, mocking her.

"I can't believe you still have followers. You'd think they would have left you right after the war. Who would want to follow you after you've already served your purpose?"

"Worthy followers and my friends. You know, smart people."

"Mhmm, is that what Bonnie is? A worthy follower that you're marrying. You know I heard somewhere you're not supposed to date other cult members, especially the leader."

"It's not a cult," Harry said.

"Oh that's right, you tried to kill _yourself_, not your followers," she said.

"I was _four_."

"Is that supposed to make it any better?"

"What I did with myself when I was younger is none of your business. And who Bonnie wants to marry is none of your business either. It's her choice and she chose to marry me."

"I'm sure you think I should just take it as her great privilege to marry the mental Savior who calls her pet and treats her like a lucky follower who happened to be pretty enough for you."

"I do not treat her like that. I love her and I treat her as my equal."

"You're too young to know what love means. Marriage is not just fun, you have to work at it. If you both get married I give it at least two weeks before you get tired of each other and regret your decision," she said, adding lemon to her tea.

Harry turned to Bonnie and smiled. "I love how much hope families have in their children's love lives. Don't you?"

Bonnie turned away and giggled.

Harry turned back to her grandmother. "Ms. McNeal, just because your marriage with your husband didn't work out, and he also happened to be in a war, does not mean that ours will not work out. Perhaps he was just annoyed with you also bashing his sanity and calling him stupid. Bonnie and I, in fact, like each other, which is how, unarranged marriages work by the way and there is usually more of a chance that, if you actually love the person, you won't break up."

"Always the vacant minded philosophy isn't it Harry? Love doesn't get you anywhere but death, we all know that."

"Well I know a lot of hateful people, who have died, haven't you? And doesn't hate cause a lot of stress, which could in fact lead to your imminent death. Plus if you have nothing to live for, you get hit by a bus it's going to kill you on impact because what do you care if you die, all you do is go around hating people. I guess you're just lucky the Knight Bus hasn't hit you yet huh? They are reckless drivers, aren't they?"

"You're just like that Headmaster of Hogwarts. Believing love will cure everything and everyone. If you hardly know what it is, how you can possibly use it to save yourself or in a debate perhaps, is beyond me."

"Who are you to criticize who knows what love is and who doesn't when all you know yourself is hate and how much you hate people."

"Potter—"

"Why do I have to keep debating with you about this? So Bonnie and I are getting married. This isn't your business, it isn't. Bonnie's a smart girl, she's not a dumb blond, she's a genius, she went to the same school I did and cured cancer and she speaks more then a hundred languages more than you do and can pick up a new one after hearing one sentence. I don't think she needs her grandmother to hold her hand and tell her who's right and who isn't for her. She's smart; she can make her own decisions. So why don't you just leave us alone and go buy a talking Voldemort figurine that they're selling in Knockturn Alley and go complain to that," Harry said all very fast before folding his arms across his chest and leaning back in his seat with a scowl on his face as he waited for the old woman's response.

"Well!" she said, not able to think of anything else perhaps. Then, "I don't have to take this filth. I refuse to sit here and be mocked by a child who's most obviously going insane," she said standing up. "I am leaving and I expect an invitation to the wedding otherwise, Bonnevilla, you will be getting no money from me. Girls, we are leaving. Come along Bonnevilla."

"Actually, I'll be staying here for a while. I want to spend time with Harry," she said, taking his hand as Harry unfolded his arms.

"Fine, stay with the filth. Your time spent with him before a wedding is coming out of your inheritance," she said, walking from the table and out of the room.

"Well, I'll leave with her," Bonnie's mother said. "Jakeline you can stay if you like, I'll deal with Satan."

"Huh, your mother has a name for her as well," Harry said to Bonnie.

"Ureic!" the woman called from the hall.

"Oh, she's going to wake up Prose," Harry complained.

"I'll see you at school, everyone but Lily," she laughed. "We should get together some time. I won't bring my mother."

"That would be nice," Lily said.

"Bye everyone," she said before leaving.

The room was silent for a moment as everyone soaked in the moment that had just passed.

"That was fun wasn't it?" Fish said randomly with a smile. Everyone turned to look at him baffled.

Harry ran his hand over his face. "I feel like I just fought with the Minister of Magic. It's tiring."

"I love it when you defend me with sarcasm and a gun. It's so hot," Bonnie said, quickly kissing his lips.

"Are you going to continue using Miss Congeniality quotes in your sentences?" Harry asked.

"Only for a week. She made me watch it fourteen times and I still don't get why. Come on, let's go to your room and we can talk about all the stuff I did this weekend and how you were helplessly lonely without me," she said, pulling him from his chair and toward the door.

"But I didn't get to drink my tea," Harry complained, as though he cared.

"It's cold now anyway, we'll have tea later."

\-\

"So what did you do on this little vacation with the lady McNeals this weekend," Harry asked as he lay back on his bed.

Bonnie crawled onto the bed beside him and lay back with her head of his chest so they could play with each other's hair at the same time. "Well, grandmamma and I went on a large shopping spree while the others went shopping on their own."

"Who else was there?"

"Fluer, her mother, you know her mother is only my grandmother's daughter-in-law and yet she still gets invited everywhere, but at least I know that no matter how much money gets deducted from my inheritance while I spend time with you I'll still end up with more then her. So anyway, we went on a large shopping spree where she tried to make me try on all these white dresses, which only made me think of our wedding and how much I loved you, which didn't make her any happier. Especially when I decided I wanted the same dress in black. She blames you for that too you know?"

"Well you must admit that was my fault."

"There isn't a problem with enjoying your clothes being in dark colors. But anyway, we went out to dinner to and she tried to convince me that my second cousin Auggen, who of which half my family knows to be gay, would be a better match for me."

"How come everyone in your family has a weird name besides your aunt?"

"I don't know, I pointed that out to her once, she said it wasn't her fault about my name and my mother's name was very normal. Maybe the women in my family have this urge to name their first born children something really creative, just out of spite or the fact that they want to be different. And then they learn from their first child that it wasn't a good idea and the second child ends up with a good name. Which would seem right since Auggen was a first born too."

"That's creepy. I'm glad my mother didn't have that problem."

"What are you talking about, she named you Harry," Bonnie giggled.

"Hey!" Harry said, reaching for her waist to tickle her making her sit up and scoot away from him. "Are you making fun of my name?"

"Why else would I start calling you St. Jimmy?" Bonnie giggled deviously.

Harry pushed her down and tickled her sides making her giggle incessantly till she forfeited and told him she was kidding.

"That was cruel," he said, turning his head from her in an offended manner. Bonnie laughed, trying to hide it but failing, knowing he was just being silly.

"I'm sorry darling, I just couldn't pass it up," she smiled.

"Yes well, did you do anything else while you were gone?"

"I don't know. I could only think about you," she smiled flirtatiously.

Harry smiled and leaned down to kiss her, continuing the greeting that had been interrupted.

\-\

"Harry! Harry, wake up," Bonnie whispered, kissing the edge of his ear. "It's your speech today," she mumbled in a sing song voice. "Aren't you excited?" she smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist as he groaned at the thought of leaving his house. She placed a gentle kiss on his neck and smiled, continuing until he moaned.

"Stop, if I get turned on by your sultry kisses I'll be woken up and then you'll make me get out of bed," Harry groaned as Bonnie continued.

"That's the point. You don't want to upset your people by standing them up do you? Everyone would be so disappointed."

"I'm sure," Harry groaned.

"They would! It means a lot to them that you would go answer their questions and talk to them. Think of all the snot-nosed little children that will be standing outside the building waiting for you to sign their autograph books and the adults who want to taunt you. It'll be fun."

"You're coming with me right?" Harry asked Bonnie as he turned to face her.

"Of course I am. And so is Fish and Ron, right?"

"If they'd like. I'm making Fish come but I'll leave it up to Ron whether he wants to go or not."

"What are you wearing?" Bonnie asked, as Harry lay onto his back and Bonnie looked down at him.

"I don't know. Would you like to pick it out?" he asked, as though he didn't already know.

"Okay!" she said excitedly, jumping off the bed.

Harry sat up quickly. "I didn't mean right now!"

"Well I have to go down to the ballroom. You still haven't unwrapped my present from your birthday and I think it would be a great time to wear it."

"But it's—" He turned toward his clock. "It's three o'clock in the morning Bonnie!" he yelled as the girl left his room.

She stuck her head back. "Well then _you_ go back to sleep. I have to plan my comeback outfit that will make all your fans forget that I ever disgraced my family by wearing a pair of pants."

"It wasn't that bad that you have to get up at three to plan your outfit," Harry said, lying back again. "You're not going to wear pastels to reclaim your good name are you?" Harry asked, before rolling onto his stomach.

"I was thinking of wearing dark blue to bring out my eyes, is that to your liking oh Great One?" she asked.

Harry waved his hand at her and she nodded and left the room to fix her outfit while Harry curled back into his pillows.

\-\

Harry woke three hours later by Bonnie whispering in his ear again. He turned to look at her to be greeted lovingly with a good morning kiss. When she pulled away she smiled brightly, her pale skin freshly washed and lightly makeup-ed with blush. Her blond hair was perfect this morning and shimmering like sunlight. She was wearing a short, bunchy black skirt with black leggings, black Converse, and a deep blue, long sleeved shirt and a thin black choker around her neck.

"If you go get in the shower now I'll have your lovely outfit here ready for you," she smiled.

"You're way too excited about this," Harry said as he forced himself out of bed and walked over to his bathroom. After drying and brushing Harry walked back into his room.

Bonnie quickly stood off his bed and then blushed as he was only wearing boxers. She giggled slightly and handed him his shirt and tight pants and then turned away to let him change.

"Have you been working out more?" Bonnie asked, shyly, looking around his room.

"I've been _sleeping_ more... Maybe it was the war. The fighting and stuff," Harry said, buttoning the tight pants. He walked up behind Bonnie and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. "You look very pretty today. When did you buy that skirt?"

"You noticed it was new?" she gushed excitedly. "My mother told me it looks like every other black skirt I own."

"Well only a person who wears just black can notice the substantial differences."

"Oh! And that's not what I bought you for your birthday if you didn't notice," Bonnie said, pulling away and running over to his bed and then running back holding a long box.

"I don't wear boots," Harry said, guessing immediately.

"Don't _assume_. I'm your fiancé and I've known you since I was seven. Don't tell me I don't know your style," Bonnie told him.

Harry sighed and took the present and unwrapped it to a long black box. He opened the box to find knee high black boots without any heal and with belt-like straps on the side that closed the boot. They were what Harry and Fish had started calling, ever since that episode of TRL with My Chem, Mikey Way boots.

"Where'd you get these?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you. You'd kill me if you knew how much and where I got them. So I just won't tell you. Just be glad your fiancé is so good to you," she smiled, sitting on the floor with him as he pulled out the boots.

Harry leaned over the box and kissed her.

"So you like them?"

"I do," Harry said, un-strapping them so he could pull on the first boot over his pants. "Think I'll be able to walk in them?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Leg. The limp, you know that thing that makes me use a cane?" Harry said, pointing to his cane on the side of his desk.

"Why would it make a difference what shoe you're wearing?" she asked as he tightened the straps around the boot.

Harry pushed himself off the floor and stood to walk over to his cane. He walked well enough with his cane, though he knew he wasn't going to carry it around at his big interview. He turned to Bonnie. "Do these make me look shorter?"

Bonnie giggled, hooked her arm with his and walked out of the room with him. When they got downstairs Harry was surprised to see almost everyone awake and more people than usual at the breakfast table. The Weasley family was there along with Bonnie's mother and Aunt, who had likely spent the night here as well.

"Why is everyone here this morning? You're not all coming to my interview thingy," he said as him and Bonnie walked in.

"Harry, our OWL's came," Hermione said excitedly, "early this morning. I got all O's. Isn't that wonderful?"

"That's great," Harry said, really not in the mood for thinking about school. He still had no idea what he would be doing this year. He and Bonnie sat down at the table and Ron passed them their letters as Fish leaned over the table to watch Bonnie excitedly open hers. She searched down the list, ignoring her classes till she got to Potions. Then she suddenly screamed sending Harry jumping out of his seat as Bonnie jumped up and down in joy.

"Bonnie calm down, so you got O's. You're a genius, we all know," Harry said, rubbing his butt as he had sat back down on the arm of the chair.

"That's not what I'm so excited about," Bonnie said. "At the end of the year, before the war, I had asked Professor Snape to put me in a higher potions class as I knew what I could do you know and it wasn't my fault that Beauxbatons didn't have a Potions class. And now," she held up her paper to him, "he's made me his apprentice."

"What?"

"Don't go all ballistic St. Jimmy on me just because you think he's creepy. I think he's awesome and none of you really appreciate just how good of a Potions Master he is. He's the best the country has and none of you appreciate that just because he happens to be grumpy."

"And that he used to be a death eater and he hates me because I inherited my dad's hair," Harry said angrily.

"Well you don't have to hang out with him and I'm just fine with it. I'll learn so much. This is so exciting," she sighed, leaning back in her seat, ignoring Harry's growls of protest, angry his fiancé would be spending time in the dungeons with the creepy Potions master.

"Aren't you going to open your letter, Harry?" Lily asked.

"Why? So I can see that I passed all my classes and have nothing to do this year?" Harry asked, reluctantly opening his envelope and letting a badge fall out that was labeled with a large H. "I'm Head Boy?"

"It runs in the family," James said excitedly, pulling Harry into a hug. "It's like genetics that the Potter men can get into as much trouble in that school as possible and still end up head boy."

"At least my fans won't be able to stalk me in the Gryffindor common room," Harry sighed, pulling out his letter to look at his grades. "I failed Divination again but did well on everything else."

"Give me that," James said, tearing it from his fingers. "Oh, you're a genius. Except, how do you fail divination?"

"She kept predicting my death." Harry gasped. "Now I get to go back and shove it in her face that I didn't die. By the way, what will I be doing this year? I mean, I already finished all my seventh year classes."

"We'll talk it over with Dumbledore later after your big meeting."

"It's not a big meeting. Cameron said it was just a few reporters."

"You're calling him by his first name now?" Bonnie laughed.

"He told me I could. Isn't it fun?"

"That means I'm calling your father James now," she said snobbishly. "And he only told you it was small so that you would more easily accept going," she smiled, grabbing a piece of toast from the center of the table.

"He lied to me?"

"He didn't _lie_. Daddy never lies. He just gave you a little push in the right direction. You can't spend all your time fearing the obsessive fans or you'd be a hermit. Eat some toast, answer some questions and you'll be fine. You did it all the time at school when your paintings got recognition, remember?"

"Yeah, but the art buyers didn't want access into my personal life. And I didn't have a limp then. And I had the ability to hide behind a big black hood. And I wore eyeliner and people didn't know me all over the world. I got a small little article right under the new café advertisement not front page of every magazine around the world."

"Harry, if you don't start shaping up and go answer the stupid reporter's questions I will deny you sex even after marriage. And I'll wear large smocks and floor length skirts and wear my hair in a bun every day. You may be religious but you are a guy and you have a thing for pale skin," she said, turning to him with a devious look in her eyes.

"That's cold Bonnie," Harry said.

"Yes, well there's a reason they call me Hell's Angel and I don't ride a motorcycle."

"Our breakfast conversations make me so excited to have a daughter-in-law," Lily said excitedly.

Bonnie giggled as Harry sighed back into his seat.

\-\

"Alright, now Harry, me—well my assistant—made up a small outline of the types of questioning the reporters would like to ask and you can cross out any questions you don't think you'll feel comfortable being asked or answering and then I'll send it via e-mail to my assistant who will e-mail it to every reporters phone, side kick or laptop. Isn't technology amazing?"

"Amazing," Harry said quietly, taking the laptop away from Cameron to look it over as they sat in the limousine on the way to the meeting. Bonnie was sitting next to Fish on the other side of the car giving Harry his space. James and Sirius and Remus had invited themselves and so did Ron, Hermione and Ginny. "This is a lot of questioning," Harry pointed out looking down the list. "Why do they need to know about my sex life?"

"They heard you made out with Nent from Elle Girl Magazine and are very interested in what their Savior did in the back room of a tattoo parlor with a 3o year old woman," Cameron smirked.

"What?" Bonnie asked, suddenly more aware.

"Nothing," Harry said.

"She was 3o?" she asked angrily.

"I didn't know that."

"So it's okay to not even know a person's age before you make out with them at work?" Bonnie asked, sulking.

"You saw the magazine and we weren't dating. Why are you so cranky this morning?"

"I'm not cranky I'm just in a bad mood. Fluer pranked me this morning while you were in the shower, called me a hoe and then hung up. She's such a bitch and I haven't gotten the chance to seek revenge yet."

"Would you like to e-mail her?"

"It's not as cold as when it comes from your own voice."

"Is that why you're all dressed up? You know she'll see you on television?" Harry asked.

"Maybe," she mumbled, looking away.

Harry rolled his eyes and returned to his list.

"Bonnie?" Cameron said after a short silence.

"Yes daddy?"

"You were in your own room while Harry was in that shower weren't you?" he smiled fakely.

"Of course dad. What would make you think otherwise?" she asked quietly as Harry moved farther from Bonnie's father.

\-\

Harry sat in the limo and looked out. "This isn't a small crowd Price. This is like Academy Awards fans who act like I'm some movie star, and I cannot act."

"That's not a huge crowd Harry. In fact you should have seen how many people were out here before we put in crowd control. Do you know how many people you spoke to during your big speech before the war? This is not that big of a crowd. Trust me, you'll get used to it. Just sign a couple autographs and your guards will escort you inside. It's fine. Come on," Cameron said, climbing out of the car first. Harry followed him with the others behind him. His guards came right up beside him as soon as his cane touched the cement. One grabbed his upper arm to get him through the crowd. "Remember to sign some autographs," Cameron reminded him, pointing to a few little kids and teens in the crowd holding out magazines and pictures as they all screamed excitedly. Harry pulled his guards over to a few people, at the same time making sure Bonnie was making it through the crowd okay. He signed a little girl's picture of him from a French magazine that had a picture of him and Bonnie from his birthday party that he was going to look for when he got home. The little girl blushed very brightly and said, "Merci. Je vous aime."

"Votre accueil," Harry smiled back before going back to his guards.

\-\

"Do you know how many followers you have Mr. Potter?" one reporter asked. "We've had people all over the world admitting to being your followers."

"Yes I do know how many followers I have. I've met every one of them and I know every one of their names and who they are. Though I do misplace people every so often but that's what I have Fish and Bonnie for. But I know them all because of the way you must get into the group. It started with just me, Fish, Tim and Tom so I thought it would be simple to sign everyone in as a follower. Fish was the one who pushed me into having an alliance. He told me he would follow me onto death because he believed I was going to do something for the world. So I said, alright, I'll form an alliance with you three but I really don't think I need anyone else. I thought we're all friends this will just be something we do for fun and then next week we'd all forget about it and be obsessed with Polo or something," Harry laughed. "But then the week passed and Fish asked me when we were going to start doing stuff and I asked him what kind of stuff, what are you talking about? I never expected it to get to the length it's at now."

"Where did the St. Jimmy bow came from?" one reporter asked.

"I did it to Fish when I first met him and he was my first follower, my first friend ever. I didn't like when people touched me I had a strange fear of contact and so I bowed instead of shaking hands and later on my followers would refer to it as the St. Jimmy bow just like the big pole I carried around and hit sinners with," he laughed. "But the bow became famous among my followers which I took as a really good sign as that meant more people would hear about my dislike of contact with followers I hardly knew. Later on when it happened more I wouldn't let it go with followers I saw everyday but Americans and French I would let them go and they could make a mistake once but more then that their contract would be torn and I would have to let them go."

"Does your fiancé still bow to you?"

Harry laughed and turned to Bonnie and then back. "No, she doesn't. She was my fourth follower and I knew then I had to have her, even if I wasn't too big on the idea of the group yet. I only had three followers. But no, Bonnie has probably only bowed to me three times the entire time I've known her but that's about it. We never bow to each other anymore. All my followers have their own way of bowing, some of them more worshipful then others and some less."

"If you ripped up someone's contract with you, did you ever fear that they may go out and tell someone about what you were doing?"

"Um, no. Never. I never feared that anyone would find out because I was pretty sure that everyone knew. It didn't get big till Bonnie joined because it opened up the width of people wanting to join and gave girls a chance. Cause, give me a break, I was seven and until Bonnie came along I was pretty sure all girls were disgusting. But everything started to expand and no, I never feared it might get out of control or people would find out. And strangely enough no one did until last year with Mrs. Nent in Elle Girl Magazine, posting her article which started to make all my followers feel suddenly famous. But it was huge, I have millions of followers, more billions I guess but millions before and it never became very big. And even if it did get out I doubted anyone would do anything. Bonnie's father worked for the Ministry and he encouraged me to keep going and that what I was doing was okay and right and good and that made it okay. Even when my uncle told Social Services, who made a regular round in our neighborhood as they were either druggies or abusive parents on that street. And when he told them they looked at him and was like, Dude, he's seven. What is he going to do?"

Hours of questioning went on and when Harry noticed the reporters and questioners were getting settled in and a little too personal with their questioning he told the people he was finished answering questions for today and left while they yelled their last questions at him. It wasn't really as hard as he had thought it was going to be. Like Bonnie had said, he had done this before.


	33. And How Did the School Blow Up?

Chapter 32

"And How Did the School Blow Up?"

"And how did the school blow up?" Harry asked the principal over his cell phone as he was on his way downstairs. He found it strange that the principal would call his phone but then again why would Fish put his own parents as his 'Emergency Contacts,' they wouldn't care. So his follower's principal called him. Because the school blew up. St. Brutis's School for Incurably Criminal Boys was a few big rocks and ash and the Girl's school across the lake was sobbing for the end of their late night partying.

He stopped on the stairs, him and his cane leaning against the railing on the stairs and he slowly slipped onto the step as the principal gave his explanation.

"So Fish blew up the school?"

The principal continued.

"So all of the followers that I have there, blew up the school?"

The principal agreed.

"What bad boys. Now, how do you suspect they did this as they had been kicked out just a few days before this little missile was set off? They spent all of their time with me preparing for the war and making sure none of the other students offed them. When would they have done this?"

The principal continued.

"Well thank you for calling and telling me. They will be punished appropriately… yes, trust me, they will accept full responsibility for their actions and I really hope your school finds a way to be rebuilt. In the meantime I suggest a vacation for you.

"No I will not pay for your school rebuilding. It's your own fault for hoarding hardened criminal children into one school. And my boys are your best, I will not pay for the damage done to your school because it only illustrates how smart they are. Happy building. Good day."

He grabbed onto his cane and stood back up and made his way down the rest of the stairs. He headed into the dining room and immediately noticed Fish, Tim, and Tom sitting eating their breakfast. Happily talking to Bonnie and everyone.

"Morning dear," Bonnie said cheerily.

Harry ignored her and walked over to the three boys and stood behind Tim. He set down his cane as the three boys looked up confused trying to look at him. Harry slapped the back of their heads hard in turn. "You little arses. What the hell were you thinking? You blew up your own damn school and then your stupid principal had the audacity to call me and ask me to pay for the damage. You idiots. Where are you going to go now, hmm? This is the second time and now that there is nothing left of the building; they are not accepting you back. You're _seventeen_, you can go to prison."

Fish turned around. "It blew up the whole school?" he smiled.

Harry flicked his forehead.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I didn't expect them to actually call you."

"And you set a large missile off in your school for what reason? And why did it have a countdown on it?"

"The teacher and her breasts's were making a move on Tim and she needed to be taught a lesson and we had to make sure that we were out of the school."

"But the rest of the school made no difference."

"We set it for the day that no one works."

"What if someone just happened to be there? It happens you know; people are unpredictable. Then you would be in prison and I'd have to go through the whole process of using my fame to get you out. Now, where did you expect to go to school if your school blew up?"

They all turned to look at him with their most innocent eyes. Harry sighed. "I'll talk to Dumbledore. But I am very disappointed in all of you."

"Sorry mother," Fish mumbled.

Harry smacked his head again before walking to his own seat mumbling to himself while the others turned to the three boys and then back to Harry and then the three again. "You blew up your school?"

"Well, they deserved it. Oh, and St. Jimmy, it wasn't just us. Toilet was in on it to. But he said he wouldn't be going back to school this year anyway so you don't have to worry about him."

"What is he doing?"

"I don't know. He's says it's a surprise."

"I think I have brain damage," Tim said, rubbing the back of his head where Harry had smacked him.

"What's the square root of 33,001,352 times 4 plus 8?" Tom asked.

"22,986.72."

"You're fine."

They both turned back to their food as the others stared at them and Harry.

"And I wonder who _made_ the missile?" Harry asked sarcastically to no one in-particular, grabbing a piece of toast.

\-\

"Harry, I know you're able to use your fame to your advantage these days but I've known you too long for it to work on me," Dumbledore smiled, sitting down behind his desk.

"I'm not using my fame to get you to do anything. And I am hurt that you believe I would sink so low," Harry said, mock hurt as he sat fell into the chair behind the desk. Dumbledore stared at him unconvinced. Harry gave up. "Fine, so I am trying to trick you into letting my friends join your school but I'm not stupid enough to use my fame to do it. I'll just use the fact that, besides the point that you knew the prophecy and that's why you let me get away with everything I did, I was always your favorite student. You can't deny it professor, you think of me as a grandson. Professor McGonnagal told me."

"She did, did she?" he asked, stroking his beard.

"Yes she did. I don't know how it came up in conversation because it must have been so boring that I completely forgot what she was talking about except for that. And Professor, it's not as if they're horrible people."

"How did their school blow up?" Dumbledore asked.

"…Well that's beside the point. They really are good boys. And I'll be here to keep them in line. There are no detentions in their school so maybe a few punishments here will help them learn their lesson. Like me."

"You don't get into trouble?" Dumbledore asked, raising his eyebrows into his hair.

"You don't see me hijacking school threstrals do you? No. I promise, if they get out of line I'll just whack them in the back of the head and give them my own detentions which is a few hours of running around the school. It is a very big school as you know."

"Harry, it's not just that I don't trust your friends because I know, I've met them, and they'll do what you say. But they've never been to a wizard school before which means they've had no proper testing or teaching. They have no scores for me to look at."

"Well let them take the OWL's and Newt's real quick. Professor, they may have never been to a wizard school before but I taught them everything I know. I taught the D.A. which helped everyone pass their OWL's. I'm not a bad teacher."

"I don't doubt your talents as a teacher, Harry." He thought for a few seconds and Harry waited casually in his chair. "Alright. I'll let them take their Newt's and if they do well I'll accept them and they'll have to come see me to figure out their schedules for the year."

"Trust me, you won't regret it. They're all geniuses and they're no worse then Fred and George. I promise."

"They have to pass Harry."

"Don't worry about it," Harry said, standing from his chair. "They will be your best students. Besides me of course. Oh and by the way," Harry said, sitting back down, "what am I going to be doing this year. I've already finished all my classes."

"Well I was thinking you could either retake them, with your friends if you wanted, as an easy grade. Or you can wander the school aimlessly of your own accord and leave whenever you like, maybe talk to your new politician friends and work out your new fame and whatever else you need to do. Or I could assign you some extra assignments from me; get you past where you are now."

"Like an apprenticeship?" Harry asked.

"I guess you could call it that, though I'm not training you to be a Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"No, but you're the most powerful wizard alive aren't you? You could train me to learn what you know."

"Harry, I think you long ago surpassed me in that category."

"Hardly, you know much more then I do. You're wise and you've read so many more books then I have and you know way more spells. I mean, I could never do a Fidelius Charm or anything."

"Harry, trust me, you've gone way beyond my strength. I may know a few more things than you but that's what I plan to teach you. I would like to teach you all that I know before I die so I would enjoy very much if you would take my training this year."

"You'll never die Professor, you'll outlive us all," Harry smiled. "But nonetheless, with nothing better to do this year and my hate of politicians I accept the challenge of being your apprentice. I look forward to it."

"Good. On your schedule it'll tell you what times you should come up to my office to get your assignments. It'll be a bit like freelancing I guess. Some assignments may take a week and others maybe a few hours. And if I can't think of anything for you to do that day I'll just send you off to class with your friends."

"Sounds okay with me. So, should I set up the tests with the Ministry or you?"

"Just send them to the school this Saturday and I will have all the instructors here to present the tests."

"Wonderful. I think they'll be very excited."

\-\

"Fish, Tim, Tom, you're meeting Dumbledore to take your Newt's this Saturday so this Sunday is going to be Sober Day. What bands are playing on that day that we could go see?"

"So we're still celebrating this year?" Fish asked curiously, flinging himself into the seat beside Harry in the parlor where he was writing a letter to someone in German.

"Of course we are. Why wouldn't we, we haven't missed a year since we were eleven and I was too depressed to celebrate without Bonnie."

"Yes but, your fame and your stalkers. Won't they cause a problem for having a nice Sober Day? I mean, concerts are bad enough with the mashing and all but with you there do you really think they'll be paying attention to the band and not you?"

"They will if they don't see me. Bonnie's whipping me up a different form of Pollyjuice potion so that I'll look like someone else. She said it was simple but she sounded oddly angry about me looking different. You don't think her only potion will make me fat do you?" Harry asked, turning away from his letter.

"Um… no."

"Hmm," Harry said simply, turning back to his letter.

"St. Jimmy," Fish said carefully, looking down at his hands as Harry read over his letter.

"Yes?"

"Um… you don't hate me for… what I did to the school do you? Because I really am sorry that I made more problems for you. I really never meant to _blow up_ the school. Just give it a little shake from the boiler room. I guess we didn't think about it well enough. I never thought the principal would bother you. And I only put you down for emergencies because if I was dying from one of my homemade bombs I'd rather have you there then my mother. But I'm really sorry about making you go to Dumbledore and talk him into letting us take tests and accept us. I know we're your biggest bother."

Harry stared at his friend as the boy sat there like he was waiting for Harry to yell and agree that he was very angry. Harry sighed and gave a slight laugh that Fish didn't hear before turning on the couch to face him. "Fish, you actually think I'm angry with you?"

"Well, you were yelling and you called us arses."

"I do that every time you do something stupid. It doesn't mean I'm angry with you. And you guys are not my biggest bother, you're my friends. And getting you into Hogwarts was not all that hard. I have connections you know, otherwise you wouldn't have even bothered mentioning it to me if you thought I couldn't do it, now would you? And I don't care that you put me as your emergency number. I understand. You know I would never hate you Fish. We've been friends for too long for anything to get between us."

"You could have stopped me before I continued on with my all-sappy speech," he said quietly.

Harry laughed. "It was a heartfelt sappy speech Fish. You don't have to be so stuck on this St. Jimmy thing Fish. I'm not your master. I'm your leader and your friend. You don't have to be scared of me if I get angry at you once. I don't want you to be."

"I got it," Fish said, resting his head on Harry's shoulder. "Who are you writing to?"

"Some guy who wants me to help him advertise something. I'm telling him it's too early."

"I think you should inform them that you know you'll never be just famous enough to do commercials. You're like… a God now. When do you think you'll have your own religion?"

"End of the school year," Harry predicted.

"That's a good prediction. I'm gonna go study for my Newts and I'll leave you alone with your letters," Fish said, standing from the couch.

"Look up bands that are playing this Sunday."

\-\

Fish, Tim and Tom had been studying all week with Hermione's help; she just couldn't help herself. She kept them busy with reading and studying and questioning them on what they read until they were finally sent to take their tests. They were there for six hours before they went home, across the street, exhausted and ready to get sleep so they could stay out all night tomorrow for Sober Day.

Meanwhile, Harry was making arrangements with the owner of Jimmy's to have the place cleared out for his personal use so he wouldn't have to be stared at through the whole night and then the owners of the club they were going to, to see if they could slip through the back. He quickly got letters back telling him it would be fine and to come as early as he needed. So he thanked them and began to contact his followers for their sober dates.

\-\

"Bonnie, what are you doing?" Ginny asked, sitting down on her friend's bed as the girl ran around in her pajamas with multiple outfits; back and forth to the mirror and her closet.

"This will be the first year where I'll actually be Harry's official date for Sober Day and I have to look especially nice."

"Didn't you go with him last year?" Ginny asked as Bonnie held up a blue dress to herself and held up her hair and then quickly let it down and walked quickly to the other side of the room where her purse was.

"Yes but I was his second choice. His "girlfriend" dumped him for an older guy and he always took me as his second choice because I was never allowed to have a date. Because no one in the group would date me because St. Jimmy wouldn't allow it."

"That's rude."

"And so over-protective," Bonnie sighed lovingly, stopping in the middle of the floor to think about it. "I could tell whenever he looked at the other boys that he was telling them I was his and I knew that he loved me." She smiled. "I was always his. I knew it, even when he avoided me."

"It's kind of obsessive Bonnie," Ginny said, smiling slightly.

"Is not. It's not my fault that he left me waiting for all that time. And he's the same way; otherwise he wouldn't be so overly protective of me. There are three new boys added to the group since the last Sober Day so you'll see what I mean."

"It's cute, in a strange, obsessive way."

Bonnie glared at her from the corner of her eye. Ginny smirked.

"Do you want to borrow something for tonight? I have the cutest new outfit that I picked up while I was on vacation, just so you could borrow it," Bonnie said, going to her closet for another outfit. "It's Ferragamo," she said temptingly.

"I told you. Fish hasn't even asked me to go yet," Ginny said.

"Oh pish posh; like he'd really blow off his girlfriend on Sober Night so that he can hang out with Hanna. That girl needs a dateless night."

Ginny giggled.

"Ferragamo you say? Who's that?" Ginny asked, following Bonnie to the closet.

"These are Ferragamo shoes: The very best, my favorite. But don't worry about hurting them, grandmamma keeps forgetting I have this very pair and I have almost five of them now. One for every school day right?"

"Is that why you like your grandmother? Because she buys you all these designer labels?" Ginny asked, looking over the shoes so she didn't notice Bonnie tense but she could feel it in the air. She looked up at her friend as she seemed to force herself to loosen up.

"Umm—"

"I didn't mean to offend you it's just… well she's so mean to Harry and you seem so set on him being perfect that it's kind of hard to imagine that you wouldn't defend him."

"Harry doesn't need me to defend him and I do love my grandmother for reasons other than her money. She's practically the only one I have and I like to take advantage of that. No matter how mean she is. I don't want to lose another one," Bonnie said sadly.

"You mean your grandmother died?" Ginny asked curiously, trying to sound sorry but she was really more curious.

"No, she didn't die. We're just not allowed to talk to her. Don't tell Harry okay because he'd be awfully disappointed in me for not telling him this when we were younger. I had lied when I told him all the problems with my family because we weren't supposed to talk about "the other side of the family." So promise you won't tell him, please."

"I promise."

Bonnie nodded. "Well, the other side of the family is my father's side: His parents, his sister, and his brother. We haven't spoken to them in… well actually I've only spoken to them once and I was only five so I hardly remember. But my father said that after that we never talked to them. Since my father married a witch, a pureblood one at that, he wanted to tell his family all about his new beautiful and rich fiancé. But when the family was invited over to the house my mother got a letter from the Ministry of Magic reminding her that we are not allowed to tell muggles about the wizarding world no matter who's getting married to whom. So my father had to hide from his family the fact that he was marrying someone from the "other race" as we soon became known to them.

"The dinner went on without a hitch and they loved my mother because back then she was practically normal. A few years later some things happened. I was born, with blond hair, and two years later I showed signs of magical powers. They didn't enjoy that very much and when the Ministry found out that muggles had seen me perform magic they decided to screw us over and let us deal with it. So without being obliviated my father's family realized that my father had been lying to them about his marriage and were not very happy about being left out of the loop. From that point on that side of the family hated us. They called me and my mother the "other race." They hate me and my mother and because of that my father decided he hated them, instead of us. They made him choose. Grandmamma claims she hates muggles doesn't she; she calls them dirty and hates the "half-blood blend." But she doesn't really care. She would never make my mother choose between her and her family. She didn't; she secretly likes my father, I know it. That's why I like her."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. Harry had almost the same problem except he had to live with the people that hated him because he was magical. The problem with my family would probably seem small to him anyway. I don't even have to deal with the people; they just silently hate us from somewhere deep in Monaco where they'll never see us again. They never even congratulated my father on becoming Prime Minister. And they're British for god sakes. They're just horrible people."

"I'm sure Harry would care. Even more so because he was in the same predicament."

"I wonder how they all feel now that the whole world worships the feet of a wizard. The one I'm going to marry. God I love him."

Ginny smiled.

"Now, enough of this. Let's get you into some casual Mark Jacobs for tonight. We'll show Fish just what his girlfriend can look like."

"He hasn't even called me his girlfriend yet."

"He's just slow. He'll realize out what this relationship is sooner or later."

"What if he doesn't want to see me in designer?"

"Who wouldn't? Besides, he and Harry shop at Thrift Stores and Punk Urban Streets where the owners watch you shop to make sure you don't steal anything. They wouldn't know designer if it smacked them on the ass. They'll just be glad we look good."

\-\

"So? How do you like my hair?" Harry asked as he walked into the dining room.

Fish spit his food out at Tim. "Oh. My. God," he said slowly.

"Fish, don't take the Lord's name in vain. What, you don't like my new hair?" Harry asked, running a hand through his new blond hair.

"You look like you've died and gone to Draco Malfoy's stylist," Ron said in a slow shocked voice.

"Thanks."

"Harry, you can't keep that, it will ruin the entire Potter reputation," James said orderly.

"Sirius has red hair!" Harry said.

"He was born that way. Now go change your hair back," James said quickly, sounding freaked.

"Dad, calm down. It's just a spell. Look." Harry put his hands in his hair and messed it all up until all the blond was shaken out of it. "See, no need to get all whacked out. Cool huh? Now we can change little Sirius's hair," he said quietly.

"Where did you find a spell like that?" Fish asked as Harry sat down next to Bonnie who smacked him on the arm.

"Merlin's book. Don't know what he would need that spell for but look. It's so cool. And yet slightly creepy if used the wrong way. Watch, it's like The Craft." He ran his hands over his face and down his hair until James and Sirius both fell out of the seats at the sight of Severus Snape sitting at their table.

"Stop it! It's horrible!" Sirius yelled.

"The Devil's greasy spawn is sitting at my breakfast table!" James yelled from under the table.

Harry laughed and turned back to himself. "Sorry."

"Don't do that. Keep your magic to yourself."

"Fine. I was just testing it out as a safety precaution."

"You know I'm not going to kiss you if you don't look like you, right?" Bonnie asked.

"Of course. I wouldn't expect you to. I'm just so beautiful as me nothing could compare right?" Harry asked, running a hand through his hair haughtily.

Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Oh and look. I wish I would have found this spell sooner because look what I can do." He ran his hand over the part of his bangs that covered his scar. When he pulled his hand away that part of his hair was white. He pulled back his hair and there was nothing but his clear forehead. "I can get rid of my scar."

"I don't think you should do that," Ron said.

"I agree," Fish said. "It's weird. Your scar's a part of you now like the name St. Jimmy."

"Glad to know I'm defined by the stupid scar Voldemort put on my head," Harry said.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Fish said.

"I know. I was just enjoying my fun," Harry sulked, looking at the table.

"Stop sulking Harry," Bonnie said, hooking her arm with his, "it's a lovely morning. Why don't you eat your breakfast?"

"I'm not really hungry," Harry said, releasing his arm and standing from his chair. "I have to go call the club owner. Excuse me," he said quietly, exiting the dining room.

Once he was gone Fish gasped and dropped his head onto the table causing everyone to look at him. "He's upset with me. Why do I keep talking back?" Fish asked himself, about to bang his head against the table again.

Tim grabbed the collar of his shirt. "He's fine."

"It's Sober Day," said Tom.

"We're all in a mood," Tim said.

\-\

"Hey Ginny!"

Ginny stopped and looked around to see Fish walking toward her. "Hey, I thought you were… um, at home, getting ready for Sober Day."

"Shouldn't you be getting ready as well?" Fish smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Well I haven't been invited. This is a St. Jimmy's follower's event, is it not?"

"Well I'm a follower and I don't have a date to this event. You know I think Harry may be getting a little proper for my tastes. This may be one of the last whacky Sober Day's we have. Soon we'll be having big galas where we all have to dress up." He shivered and Ginny giggled. "Anyway though, would you like to be my date to Sober Day? Hanna will be so jealous. Bonnie won't be the only one fighting her off. But I don't know how into cat fights you are."

Ginny smiled. "I would love to go with you."

"Good. I think Ron and Hermione are going to. I'll get to show off my hot red head girlfriend to _everyone_," Fish said, looking up at the ceiling like a superhero would after they've defeated evil.

"You're so weird," Ginny smiled, turning his face toward her and pulling him into a sweet kiss.

\-\

"I'm so glad you all live on the same street I do," Harry said happily. "Are we really driving all the way to London?" he asked dismally. "Where are we anyway?"

"I think we're near Kensington. In the wizarding part that's protected by spells."

"Does anyone want to take the limo?" Harry asked.

Toilet raised his hand. Fish pushed it down. "It's tradition to ride there in cheap vehicles St. Jimmy."

"It's also tradition to play the ex-girlfriend song at the club but we haven't done that in a while. We can't ride all the way from Kensington to London. We'll run out of gas."

"Let's just apparate," someone said.

"Let's just not," Fish said angrily. "Let's apparate to Mongolia Cresent and then we'll drive. Does that satisfy everyone?"

Ginny raised her hand. "I can't apparate," she pointed out.

"I'll take you," he said, pulling her closer to him by her waist. "Anyone else?" No one said anything. "St. Jimmy?"

"It's fine with me." He picked up his tiny bike and took Bonnie's hand before apparting away with her. Everyone followed after him.

Once everyone was on the street Harry set his bike back on the ground and enlarged it to its original size. He turned to Ron. "Do you know how to drive a motorcycle?"

"No."

"That's okay." Harry made a copy of his own bike and floated it in front of Ron. "It's easy, you'll get it. Like riding a broom."

"It's easy," Ron mumbled, putting a leg over the bike and Hermione climbed on behind him while Harry searched his pockets for his keys.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Ginny asked as Fish took her hand to pull her on behind him.

"Of course it is. Bonnie rides with Harry, and I have been riding much longer then he has."

"How long?"

"Since I was nine when my legs were long enough. Now come on, it's fun." Ginny carefully climbed onto the bike and made sure to wrap her arms tightly around Fish's waist to make sure she wouldn't fall off. This was how she figured out why he was such a ladies man, he had a great body. She rested her cheek on his back as Fish inconspicuously ran his hand once down her thigh before Harry could see it.

Bonnie had refrained from wearing what she had originally planned, (as did Ginny) and again ended up in her red Dock Martin boots and a black dress that was tight at her hips and loose on the way down.

Harry turned to Bonnie as the others were getting into cars. "You're my official date to Sober Day. Excited?" Harry asked.

"A little," Bonnie lied.

Harry smiled and kissed her before turning forward again ready to take off when the cars beeped.

\-\

At the club they were all escorted through the back and onto the main floor where Harry's guards would be standing at the corners of the room, sure to be inching closer to him throughout the night. Soon, the others who had been waiting outside gathered inside the club and into general admission. His guards had highly advised him not to go into the mosh-pit, considering the fact that he was ignoring his bad leg and leaving his cane with them, but he ignored them and did it anyway. Orange was playing and he wasn't going to miss them because he happened to have a bad leg. So he wrapped his arms around Bonnie's waist and kept her in front of him as the crowd shoved everyone forward toward the stage. The concert went on fine without any of them getting into fights and when it was over it was eleven o'clock and they were on their way to the restaurant.

Instead of having their own personal area set up in the back with twenty-six seats made available, the whole restaurant was available, with a huge group of reporters standing outside. Apparently, everyone figured out just where St. Jimmy and his group gathered for Sober Day. They all shoved their way through the crowd, swearing at the reporters, which made the reporters confused because Harry just smiled and laughed at their crude words till he was inside. His guards closed the doors shut when everyone was in.

Harry made his way to his seat at the front in his round booth. He extended it so that Ron and Hermione could both sit with him. And Ginny sat beside Fish instead of Hanna who then had to find another seat where people didn't hate her. Ron and Hermione sat at the end of the booth beside each other; Harry sat in the middle with Bonnie on his left side and Fish on his right and Ginny sitting beside him.

Hanna did not look happy that she had to be moved and was now forced to sit with Ma'am and her vampire friends. Especially Avin who seemed to hate everyone but his mate and Harry and now looked at Hanna like he wanted to eat her.

When everyone was seated at their tables they started ordering drinks as the owner came up to Harry's table. He bowed and then stood excitedly again. "Um, sorry to disturb you sir."

"No problem at all. We've been coming here forever."

"Yes you have. I was thinking of having the place plastic-wrapped and setting it up as a tour site in your honor but I knew you wouldn't enjoy that very much so I decided against it."

Harry laughed. "I'm much obliged. Because if you had then we wouldn't be able to eat here anymore, which would be horrible, as not so long ago we had to beg to be let in."

"Well you were horrible little brats. You still are, you're just much taller." Harry laughed and so did the man. "Anyway, I didn't want to ask because I don't want to be an obsessive fan but would you sign this? I wanted to put it up."

Harry took the thick contract paper from him. It didn't have anything written on it. "You can sign anywhere you like, anyway you like."

"Um, do you want the whole group to sign it?"

"That would be great. Make sure the future wife signs it to, even though she wasn't here five years and now orders French food that I don't cook."

"Oh please, it doesn't smell that bad."

"You plug your nose while you eat it," Fish laughed. Bonnie glared at him.

"And maybe you can sign your nicknames under your real names, or maybe the other way around."

"I intend for everyone to remember me as Fish and that's all I'm putting down," Fish said stubbornly.

"I wouldn't expect you to. That would ruin the tradition," the owner smiled. "Um, you can just pass it around and I'll take it with your bill. Thanks a lot St. Jimmy."

"No problem. I'm actually happy to sign something for once." The owner left as the waitress brought them their normal drinks.

"And what will you two have?" she asked happily toward Hermione, Ron and Ginny.

They ordered and Harry stood to make his speech. It was instantly silent. "We are here today, to gather as friends, as the Suburban Children of "Sub Gossip Parents.' We meet here once a year, to regain old childhood memories and make new ones. Making sure we are still the connected friends we were since the age of five. Some of us have not been here that long. Some of us just joined this year and did not have the chance to join us for our last Sober Day. They did however fight in the war and have made it through, even though they weren't trained by moi," he smiled, putting a hand on his chest jokingly. "Would those renamed Haru, Bird, and Omelet, please stand," He turned to Fish. "Omelet? Really? And where did Haru come from?" he asked in a whisper.

"I was watching a Japanese film and I was hungry, so sue me," Fish whispered back.

The three boys stood up and then bowed in front of Harry's table.

"Hi." Harry bowed back the best he could with the table in front of him. The three boys retook their seats. "I would also like to congratulate everyone on doing a great job and helping us all get through a horrible war. We've all trained very hard and made it through because of it. All our hard work has finally paid off, and we even made some money out of it as well. And even though the war is over I have no intention of disbanding the group at all as it has been rumored by someone. This group was not just about the war it was about us being friends and defying our parents and people who believe we can't do anything just because we came from the wrong side without any money. Now we get to show off, but just a little. And Avin, try to hold back on attacking Hanna.

"I guess that's about it, does anyone have any questions or topics anyone would like to bring up?"

Hyp raised his hand.

"Yes Hyp."

"We're being invited to your wedding, right? Because if not my new pet turtle is going to be really disappointed."

"Um, yes of course you will. Everyone will."

"Cool."

"Is that all?" No one else raised their hand. "Then I would like to mention that I'll be passing around this sheet. I want everyone to sign it with their nickname and then their pedestrian name. I'll take it back after dinner and then it's on to Bonnie's house. Right?" he asked Bonnie. She nodded. Harry sat down again.

\-\

"Alright, we have a new rule," Harry said as he closed the door behind him and Cameron came in with him. "We're locking this door and if anyone leaves within the next few hours, I'm firing you. Mr. Price has some political friends inviting themselves over, to talk about me. So I will not have them finding out that I'm here. Got it?" Everyone nodded. "If you need to leave early you should leave now." No one moved so Price left and the butler came in. He levitated in three sets of trays full of hot chocolate with name tags hanging out of them.

"A special treat for the warriors, from the house elves," he smiled before leaving as well. Everyone came and picked up their hot chocolate.

"It's been personalized," Toilet said, counting his marshmallows and going back to his seat beside Hyp. Harry grabbed his and Bonnie's and headed over to their seat to sit with Fish and Ron. He handed Bonnie her drink before she was pulled away by Ginny and Hermione who told her she had girlfriends to hang out with now. So they left the boys by themselves.

"Bonnie," Ma'am said excitedly, folding her legs as she sat down around her with Ial. "How are you?"

"Um, I'm fine. And you're supposed to call me Hell's Angel tonight. Why are we talking?" Bonnie asked all very quickly, surprised someone within the group was speaking so nice to her.

"Oh, we don't use that name with you. Fish was having a bad day when he thought up Hell's Angel, or he really didn't like you then," Ial giggled.

"And why wouldn't we talk to you?" Ma'am asked.

"Because we're enemies on the inside," Bonnie reminded them.

"How can you say that? St. Jimmy, your fiancé, would not be very happy about that."

"But it's true."

"We're all on the same side Bonnie," Ma'am said.

"You're only talking to me because I'm marrying St. Jimmy, isn't that right?" Bonnie asked suspiciously.

"Only partly," she admitted. "Now let's see that rock. Rumor is it cost a fortune," Ma'am said, grabbing her hand harshly. She whistled. "How much did it cost?"

"I don't know. It's not like I asked him," Bonnie said, about to pull her hand away.

Ma'am grabbed it back and held it up. "Hey St. Jimmy," Harry looked up, "how much did the rock cost?" she yelled across the room.

Bonnie pulled her hand away from Ma'am and held it against her chest rubbing her finger against the diamond.

Harry just smiled at Ma'am mysteriously and looked away to continue his conversation with Ron and Fish.

Ma'am giggled.

"You shouldn't have done that. It's terribly improper and rude. I don't want to know how much it is. It ruins the romance behind it."

"I'm sure you wouldn't say that if the rock was smaller," Ma'am mumbled.

"I know what you're talking about," Ial told Bonnie. "All Avin did was bite me in the neck, we drank some blood and then he's like, I bet you want a ring now don't you?" Ial mocked.

"Be grateful," Avin said into her ear as he came up and kneeled beside her before anyone noticed. He kissed her cheek softly before standing and walking away again. All the girls giggled.

"Well isn't this cute," Hanna said, walking up to them. "Aren't we all the best of friends," she said kneeling beside them. She turned to Ginny. "You're the new girl dating Fish right?"

"Yeah," Ginny smiled.

"I slept with him you know. No need to worry about it, he's very experienced," she smiled evilly.

Ginny frowned and looked down away from her.

"Don't listen to her Ginny. Fish would never sleep with her, she had HIV by then," Bonnie said, putting her hand on Ginny's.

"I do not have HIV you little bitch. You're just jealous."

"Of what? Your bad hair?"

"Of the fact that if I was the one about to marry St. Jimmy, if we had sex, I _would_ be able to get pregnant."

It was completely silent for a moment as everyone had heard that last comment. Bonnie's eyes were blank. She looked straight at Hanna and glared at her. It all happened so fast. "Vous le VIH a infesté Tracy. (HIV infested bitch) Bonnie jumped at her and pinned her to the floor pulling at her hair with one hand and punching her with the other, using the grip on Hanna's hair as a lever to pull her head up for another punch. In a few seconds Hanna raised her hands up around Bonnie's neck but someone was already there to pull them apart. Harry grabbed Bonnie carefully and she easily let go while Fish and Tim pried Hanna's fingers from around her neck. "You'll pay for that comment you bitch," Bonnie said, her voice shaking as tears started to fall.

"Tell it to your crazy mother—"

"HANNA!" Harry shouted. Everyone stopped. Bonnie turned away to hide her tears as Harry stared angrily at Hanna. "You should go now. Go get your stuff and leave. And you can erase me from your phone and your e-mail. I'm ripping up your contract. I've had enough of this—"

"St. Jimmy! I—"

"Don't talk back to me," Harry yelled as Hanna dropped to her knees. "I've had enough of you. You think I haven't heard you? You sold me out to the press, you ignore too many rules and you talk to my friends, my followers, and my fiancé like they're below you. I tried giving you chances but I guess nothing gets through. Now grab your stuff and go. Greer, please escort her out to make sure she leaves." The guard nodded and came forward to help Hanna leave. She looked distraught. "Everyone else can go back to what they were doing." Everyone pretended to go back to their conversations while they were still listening to Harry and Bonnie and watching from the corner of their eye. "Pet, come on," Harry said, wrapping his arms around her and trying to make her look at him but she refused. A sob escaped her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, putting her head on his shoulder trying to hold back her tears or make them as silent as possible. "It's okay." Harry bent his knees slightly and ran one arm under her knees and lifted her into his arms and carried her out of the ballroom with his guards following.

Ial, Ma'am Hermione, and Ginny watched as the door shut again. "That was really bad," Ial said. "The last person St. Jimmy fired was Aco when he tried to touch Bonnie, a little too friendly that boy if you know what I mean. The last girl he fired was Alicia who also wanted to be his girlfriend. I think that's the only reason you can get fired. Nothing will ever hurt dear Bonnevilla as long as he's there." She turned back to the girls. "But Hanna took it too far. That was way cold, even for her. And she's a cold hearted bitch."

"Did they always fight like that?" Hermione asked.

"Not as bad. It was usually quiet, their little insults."

"Hey girls," Fish said, quietly, crouching beside them. "Ginny, you know I wouldn't sleep with Hanna, right? I just took her to Sober Day but I never slept with her."

"It's okay, I understand," Ginny smiled, but it wasn't a full one.

"That I didn't sleep with her?" he questioned, to make sure.

"Yeah," she smiled more.

"Good." He kissed her cheek. "You wanna go to sleep? Butler will be turning out the lights in a minute," he said running the tips of his fingers up her arm.

"Um, sure. Does everyone sleep together?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah. We're all friends."

"Don't worry Ginny. He's a good boy when he's sober," Ma'am said, standing up with Ial as they giggled. "Night Fish."

"Night," Fish said slowly looking up at her before turning back to Ginny.

"Did you sleep with her?" Ginny asked.

"Mnnn, maybe. Come on," he said, gently taking her arm so she'd follow him. She rolled her eyes and followed. Hermione went over to Ron who was sitting beside Fish's blanket.

\-\

Meanwhile, Harry and Bonnie were in the downstairs bathroom sitting in the bathtub. Harry had his back to the edge and was holding Bonnie in his lap as she cried into his chest. He ran his hand over her curls and whispered comfortingly in her ear. "Shh, pet it's alright. She's just bitter, she doesn't know what she's talking about."

"But I can't have children. She's right, just because she was mean about it doesn't make it false."

_Why do people keep bringing this crap up?_ Harry thought. Though he knew why. The whole world was expecting The Savior or the Great St. Jimmy to have kids and an heir to his power and the followers expected a leader if he was to die someday. Though he didn't get why? They'd be following a little kid. But he saw their way of thinking. And the fact that the girl he chose for a wife had no bodily ways of creating a child for him made for huge controversy. But they didn't have to keep discussing it in front of either of them since they knew exactly how Harry would respond.

"Pet, you've got to stop listening to them. I know it's hard because it is a very personal subject and I'm going to beat up all the people I can but," he stroked her cheek, "you can't take them seriously. They're just jealous of you and angry at me. They're taking it out on you and it's not right but you can't let this get the best of you."

Bonnie rested her head on his chest as he rested his chin on her hair, nuzzling into her golden locks. She fiddled with a string on his black T-shirt. "Why did you choose me?" Harry lifted his head and looked at her. She had never questioned why he loved her. He thought she knew. "Why did you pick the one girl who couldn't give you anything at all? What do I do for you? All I do is cry and cause trouble for you. You could date models and movie stars and... why would you love me?"

"Because pet," he said, turning her face, "I do. I was in love with you the first time I saw you. And since then it's only grown. That's a long time for that love to grow and I could never feel that much for anyone else. And besides, I hate models and movie stars. Models don't eat, and that's my job, plus they're not nearly as pretty as you. And movie stars, we all know their relationships don't last long. I want a life long relationship with a beautiful, caring witch, who loves me and understands me. You're the only one who understands how I can be a hard-core Catholic and a bad-mouthing anarchist at the same time. You understand that even though you love designers and fancy shoes that I'm still going to shop at poor stores as you used to call them." Bonnie gave a strangled laugh. "You love me for everything that I am and even maybe if I had gone insane you would still love me, I don't know. I'm kind of guessing you would because it didn't happen so I can believe what I want."

She smiled. "I would."

"See. You're a good person Bonnie. You care about people, you're easy to talk to, and you're smart. I don't know a smarter person then you. And, number one good reason, you don't make fun of me for being the one who wants to wait. A lot of girls would think I was joking. And a lot of girls would say screw you and go shag some other guy while I was waiting, especially if I kept them from having other boyfriends, being touched, or kissed by any guy but myself, ever."

"I don't really mind that," Bonnie smiled, running her fingers over his bicep. "I'd wait forever for you."

"Why?" Harry asked, mocking her question.

Bonnie seemed ready with her answer. "Because you're perfect in your own strange but perfect way. You have a perfect body even if you are a bit skinny, it's not like you can tell. You're smart, strong, and protective, you love me, and you don't take people's crap. You hate politicians but for some reason you just happen to like my father. I love your hair, the way you love roses just because I do and the way you have power over people just because they want you to. You don't take advantage of people when they've given into your power and you even feel sorry for your enemies and can see their side of the story. You can hijack cars and call your uncle a cunt but you'll go apologize to God for all of it and no matter what happens to you, you'll never blame a family member, though sometimes thats not a good thing. And you believe me when I tell you I do not curl my hair and you understand my obsession with old movies. That's just some of the list."

"Well I've slept over plenty of time to know you don't curl your hair," Harry said, running his fingers through said curls. "And even if you did, at least you're persistent."

Bonnie pulled out of his arms slightly and slowly turned to face him, kneeling between his legs. She leaned forward and gently kissed him while inconspicuously unbuttoning her black pajama top. "You love me?" she asked as the kiss heated up and he ran his hand across her cheek and his other under her shirt to settle on her bare hip.

"I love you," Harry repeated.

"Are you sure you want to wait?" she asked, pulling away from him and gently slipping open a small opening in her shirt to give him a flash of skin.

"Oh, and have sex here in the bathtub where your dad could find us? I'm not really that turned on honey, sorry."

"Haha," she smirked. "We could go in my room. My dad doesn't go in there."

"I'm sure that I want to wait until it's finalized. On a romantic night after we're married and we're both ready and sure."

Bonnie smiled. "Good, because I don't want to do it on a single bed," Bonnie said, opening her shirt to reveal that she was wearing a black tank-top underneath. Harry laughed slightly and ran his fingers gently over her collarbone. He sat up and scooted back; pulling her with him but so she was still on her knees. He leaned forward and placed his lips gently onto her collarbone and gently kissed and nibbled her collarbone. Bonnie sighed as his breath fluttered over her skin. She put her hand against his neck as Harry nuzzled against her chest. He looked up. "You want to go back in the ballroom? I'm sure everyone is asleep by now."

"Yeah okay. But we're sleeping in this time." She grabbed her shirt and pushed herself up in the tub to stand. Harry followed and they both climbed out and headed into the ballroom to go to sleep in the space beside Fish. Bonnie slipped her shirt back on and snuggled up against Harry's chest as he pulled the blanket over them.


	34. I Miss the Slytherins I Don't Miss the

Chapter 33

I Miss the Slytherins. I Don't Miss the Slytherins.

"Ron, can I speak with you?" Harry asked, sorry for disrupting his conversation with Hermione in the lounge. He was surprised that none of his friends ever went home anymore but he didn't mind it, and his mother enjoyed the time that Mrs. Weasley spent there when she was visiting, since she never saw her own children at home anymore.

"Sure Harry," Ron said, looking to Hermione first who nodded and went to go find Ginny and Bonnie. Harry took her seat beside Ron. "What's up?"

"Nothing huge. I just have a few questions since you're the only pureblood friend that I have."

Ron laughed. "Sure, what is it?"

Harry turned and folded his legs on the couch to face Ron. "Do you worship Merlin Ron?"

"Um, my family isn't big on the whole religion thing but we are part of that religion, yes. Why?"

"Well, where do you go to church? I've never heard of a Church of Merlin or seen one, so where do you all go to pray or worship and such?"

"Well in most prominent pureblood families, which are usually the only ones to worship Merlin; purebloods, they don't go to a church. They only have a certain room in their house that is dedicated to Merlin. They go there to worship and pray. All faithful purebloods have a room like that I guess."

"Do you think my father would have one?" Harry asked.

"I'm sure he would since your family does come from a very prominent line. It was probably the first thing built in the house. I'm sure Bonnie's mother would probably have one to and maybe Sirius and Remus. I'm sure Remus is a whole hearted Merlin worshiper like your father and maybe Sirius converted when he moved in with your father after running away." Ron watched as Harry absorbed the information. "Why didn't you just ask your father if he had a prayer room?" Ron asked.

"I...well—where do you think it would be?" Harry asked, avoiding the question.

"Maybe you should ask your mother. I'm sure she would know where her husband's prayer room is."

"She would wouldn't she? Well thank you for your help Ron. You can go find Hermione again," Harry said, standing up. "I'll see you later."

Ron rolled his eyes and went to find Hermione again.

\-\

"Mum?" Harry said, sitting down on the baby blue sofa in little Sirius's room. She was rocking him in the wooden rocking chair in front of the window.

"Hi sweetie. Gained up enough Gryffindor courage to make it to the baby's room?" she joked.

"Yeah, ha ha." Lily smiled. "Mum, does dad have a prayer room?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"Of course. Were you reading?"

"No I asked Ron." Lily nodded. "Well, do you know where it is?"

"Yes."

Harry was silent waiting for her to continue and explain. She was finished. "Well where is it?"

"Why don't you ask your father?" Lily said, knowing Harry really didn't want to, "I'm sure he would be thrilled to show it to you if you were curious."

"I'm sure he would be," Harry mumbled. "But I can't ask him because then I would have to tell him why I want to see it and it's not because I want to worship Merlin with him and then he'll be disappointed in me again."

"Harry your father is not disappointed in you. He's just sad that he was dead while you were discovering religion and he didn't have the chance to lead you into his."

"That's what I said."

"So why don't you tell _me_ why you want to know where your father's prayer room is?"

"I just wanted to do something for him before I left for school."

"And what's that?" Lily asked, looking down at her other son who had fallen asleep.

Harry held out a piece of paper that he had torn from his drawing book and handed it to Lily. She looked it over.

"Harry, that's beautiful. When did you do this? Who is it?"

"It's Merlin when he was younger. I did it while I was still in my room, right after the war. I found it in one of Merlin's books. Either a self portrait or something done by a friend. I recopied the page with minor changes to the scenery and using my own techniques of course."

"And you want to paint this in your father's prayer room?"

"Do you think he'd like that or do you think he'd have me murdered for disturbing his private room, something I know nothing about?" Harry asked worriedly.

"I think he'd _really_ like it. Merlin is a part of his long old family line, I think he'd appreciate a piece of Merlin's history in his room, since he is part of the Merlin bloodline."

"Good, so do you think you could keep him out of his prayer room for at least two days so I can paint it?"

"You're going to paint a wall sized mural in two days."

"I've done it before. Ask Bonnie. The ones I do in two days are the ones that end up in museums."

Lily stood up with little Sirius and carried him over to his crib and covered him up. "I'll show you where it is but we have to be quiet because your father is downstairs and detects anyone going in there. It's his pride and joy."

"Are you sure Dad won't be angry?"

"If he is he can always have it removed." She saw the disappointed look on her son's face and put her arm around his shoulders. "I'm just kidding. I'm sure he'll love it. Besides, once you walk into the room you'll agree with me that it needs a little something," she said as they walked into the hall. She quietly walked downstairs to the third floor and down a hall Harry didn't even know they had. She walked quietly like a child who wasn't supposed to go into the kitchen to get a cookie but was going to get one anyway. She walked up to a gray door and pulled Harry along quickly before opening it and shoving him. She closed the door quietly behind her as Harry looked around.

It was a large white room. The floor was a shiny, white tile, the walls were white and a small podium against the wall was white to. "Wow, did dad have an obsession with white when he made this room."

"I don't know, your father likes things plain. As you can tell, I designed the rest of the house with top of the line designers. If it was up to your father the whole house would be completely white, like a mental hospital."

"Are you sure dad won't be angry that I disturbed his white room?"

"No. He'll be very happy. Are you going to get started now? I'll keep your father at bay," Lily said, handing him his drawing back.

"Yeah." Harry summoned a can of black paint and his set of brushes. "If father gets angry I'm going to tell him that you said it was fine," Harry said, checking his brushes.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine," she sighed. She kneeled down beside Harry as he picked up one of his brushes. "Harry, he loves you despite your religion. You're both big fans of your religion but it's not going to change how you feel about each other, okay?"

Harry just nodded, not looking up. Lily kissed his cheek and then left the room.

\-\

Two days later:

"Hey dad," Harry said, sitting next to him on the couch in the lounge, interrupting whatever chat he was having with Sirius and Remus while Lily was reading a book. She looked up over the edge of her book smiling secretively behind it.

"Hi," James said, unsure what Harry wanted because he looked blatantly happy even though James hadn't seen him aside from meals for almost two days, but Lily had been around James every second of the day, as though she was watching him. He was suspicious the two things had something in common.

"I have a present for you. Would you like to come see it?" Harry asked excitedly.

"A present for me? What for?"

"No reason."

"Is this some kind of prank?"

"No. It's some kind of special present just for being my father. Now do you want to see it or not?"

"Fine, but if I end up with pink hair and a big nose I'm going to ground you."

"Okay." Harry stood up and grabbed his cane again, leading the way toward his father's prayer room. His father noticed this when they got close.

"Harry, what have you done to my prayer room? How did you even know I had one?"

"Mum told me. And I didn't do anything drastic, I swear. She said you wouldn't mind and you wouldn't be mad. You're not mad are you?"

"I haven't even seen what you've done. Let's go see," James sighed, leading Harry forward with his hands on his shoulders. Harry felt himself being led to his imminent doom. _He's going to kill me._

James opened the door and Harry went in first but moved to the side so his dad couldn't strangle him once he saw the paint covering his perfectly white stone wall. But instead of grabbing Harry's neck, he gasped, putting his hand to his mouth and his eyes went wide. Sirius and Remus did the same, staring at the wall. Lily smiled.

On the far wall, the first one you see when you walk in was a large painting of a young Merlin, sitting in blue robes under a tree holding up a wand as though practicing magic. He seemed relaxed as he leaned back into the large dark tree that had so much detail, like Merlin himself, they both seemed lifelike and as though coming out of the wall.

James was so touched by the painting he fell to his knees. He grabbed the edge of Harry's robes and pulled him down beside him and tugged him into a tight hug. "Thank you so much Harry. It's beautiful," James said, almost near tears.

"No problem." He looked up at his mother who smiled at him. Harry hugged his father back, resting his head on his shoulder.

\-\

"And Da Vinci said, "The art of procreation and the members employed there in are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and the adornments of the actors and the pent-up impulse, nature would lose the human species," Harry said, to Bonnie as they sat across from each other at the table waiting for everyone else to come downstairs so they could go to King's Cross.

Bonnie popped a chip into her mouth. "And he said, "Nothing strengthens authority so much as _silence_."

"I think you meant insult in that, but, very nice. Um, oh! "Our life is made by the death of others," he quoted, popping a chip into his mouth.

"Life well spent is long," she said easily.

Harry gasped. "That was short and to the point."

"Well that's the way it's gotta be."

Harry popped another chip in his mouth. "Oh, got it. "Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel."

Bonnie gasped and threw a chip at him. "Is that an insult?"

"I'm not sure, I never understood that one. I thought you might."

"You can't use quotes you don't understand."

"Says who, we made up this game like five minutes ago."

"Says me. It wouldn't make sense."

"Neither does eating chips for breakfast. Where are the cooks?"

"They're on vacation. Early," James said, walking downstairs with Sirius and Remus behind him.

"Do you three get dressed together every morning or is it just coincidence that you come down at the same time?" Harry asked.

"Just coincidence," James said as they sat down. "So what are you guys doing?"

"Da Vinci quotes. I call dibs on the name," he told Bonnie. "She says I'm cheating."

"You're _both_ so easily amused," Sirius said, sitting next to Bonnie.

"Well we try," Bonnie said, taking a bottle out of her purse and pouring it over the bowl of chips. There was a puff of smoke and then pancakes in a bowl.

"Where do you find these things?" Harry asked, grabbing one of the pancakes.

"I made them. I had a lot of spare time in France alright? I wasn't about to spend my spare time practicing how to flutter my eyelashes and suck in when I talk."

"Suck what in?"

"My stomach and my chin. Don't ask me how to suck in my chin; I fell asleep while they were explaining. You should ask Fluer though. I'm sure she does it all the time. Maybe she's actually still really fat and she's just holding it all in really well. I bet Bill would be really shocked to wake up next to that once she lets it all out."

"You dream about these things, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Sometimes. But she usually just eats a lot after having her _five,_ _ugly_ children, keeps all the weight, Bill leaves her for some younger, thinner, more proper girl, and then she catches some strange disease, loses all her hair, and then dies an obese, bald woman in her late thirties." She sighed pleasantly and smiled. "What a wonderful dream."

"I think the wrong person is in therapy," Josh said, sitting down on her other side.

"I'm completely happy with these thoughts," Bonnie mumbled to herself.

Harry smiled.

Josh turned to Harry. "You don't mind me coming to school with you right? I just think it might be safer you know? Just in case."

"I don't mind. What I do mind is why Pomfrey isn't here yet to tell me I don't need my stupid cane. And I'm not leaving till she gets here," he said, grabbing another pancake.

"You're starting to get very rude Mr. Potter," Madam Pomfrey said, walking into the room. "You better not hit me with that cane if I give you bad news," she said, taking out her wand.

"Why would you give me bad news? I didn't even use my cane at all during Sober Day and I felt fine."

"Maybe you blocked it out and felt the pain later. Am I right?"

Harry paused. "No."

"Mhmm," Madam Pomfrey hummed, forcing him to sit down again and ran her wand over him again whispering spells under her breath. One more spell and she stood up and looked away.

"What?" Harry asked. "It's better, right? I'm fine."

"I tried another healing spell but it's still not working."

"What does that mean?" Harry asked angrily.

"It's probably your own fault now. From walking on it when you were supposed to be using a cane and staying off it to let it heal. Not going to clubs and jumping and hurting it probably could have helped you."

"It's fine. You must have read something wrong."

"Harry, I didn't read it wrong. You'll have to keep the cane for another six months or so—"

"Six months!"

"And if you do it as I tell you this time you probably won't have to carry it at your wedding," she said.

"You bet your arse I won't be carrying it to my wedding."

"Harry, a lot of famous people carry canes. It's not a big deal," Bonnie said.

"Like who?"

"Like Da Vinci."

"Yeah, once he was 4o and on his death bed! I refuse to carry a stupid cane any longer. And not even you can make me," he told Madam Pomfrey.

"Alright, fine. But if you don't take care of it now you might not _have_ a leg at your wedding," she said.

"I despise you," Harry glared. He grabbed his cane and walked out of the dining room. "Fish, I'm going to whack something with my cane. Don't come into my line of vision," Harry yelled. There was the sound of something very heavy being smacked against the wall and then something breaking.

"That _sounded_ _expensive_," James yelled.

"I'll fix it," Harry yelled back, smacking something else with his cane right outside the dining room. "Hi mum, I'll fix the dents, I promise," Harry said as Lily walked into the dining room.

"What happened?" Lily asked, sitting down beside James.

"Harry's leg hasn't healed yet and he's not happy," Bonnie said.

"You sure you want to marry that?" Sirius asked, pointing toward the doorway where the loud banging noises were coming from.

"Of course I do. He has anger problems but he doesn't take it out on me."

"These pancakes are really good Bonnie," Remus said, as they all continued talking together as though the noises in the hallway were all a normal occurrence. A few minutes later Josh decided to go into the hall to settle Harry down before they left.

Harry was punching his hand into the wall farthest from the dining room. There was a line of holes along the wall from his hand. His cane lay forgotten on the floor. Fish, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Tim and Tom were sitting on the two steps that led from the stairway to the hall.

Josh walked over to Harry, making sure the cane was far enough away from him so he couldn't grab it. "Harry, let's just take a second to relax shall we?"

"Do you believe in medication?" Harry asked.

"Um, I usually go for therapy first."

Harry turned around to look at him and sighed and closed his eyes.

"Good, let's take a deep breath and then breathe out. Slowly breathe in, and then breathe out. Be Zen. Things are good. Your mind is clear and relaxed. The wind is as calm as your breathing. Careful and relaxed and—"

"We're in a house, there is no wind," Harry said.

"Well let's _pretend_ we're outside. Think of a calm happy place and try to take your mind there. Imagine yourself in that peaceful calm place that makes you happy and try to see it and feel it and smell it. And we're Zen and calm and _completely_ relaxed. We're taking in three slow steady breaths in a row. Slowly draw the air into your lungs and slowly release it. Are we better now?"

"I guess. Let's just go." He went to grab his trunk but Josh saw his hand.

"Your hand is bleeding, let's go see Madam Pomfrey first," he suggested.

Harry looked down at his hand. "Yeah, alright." He picked his cane up off the floor and while doing wandless magic on the walls to fix the holes and dents.

\-\

"Fish," Harry said as they sat in the limo on their way to King's Cross.

"Yes St. Jimmy."

"Dumbledore asked me to go over a few things with you, Tim and Tom but I would like to set in my own rule first, okay?"

"Okay."

"Yes, well, if one person makes a crack at my cane, I'll whack them with it. Just like I told the rest of you. Got it?"

"Got it," they all recited.

"And if I don't make the reach to whack them, one of you will have to chase them down to beat them to a pulp," Harry said.

"Check."

"Okay. And Dumbledore wanted to tell me to tell you that if you are any worse then "The Marauders" or The Weasley Twins you will be gone as soon as you blow up the first ghost, however he thinks you plan to do that. I think he sees serious progress in the pranksters at school and is only telling me this as a ploy to get you to defy more rules. He's so sneaky."

"So you're telling us to plan pranks?" Tim asked.

"Yes. But it cannot affect your schoolwork because you have to do well or Dumbledore will kick you out. I convinced him you were geniuses," Harry smiled.

"We are geniuses," Tim and Tom said together.

"I know." Harry rolled his eyes and shoved Tim playfully (but roughly) in the arm. Tim shoved back playfully and Harry pushed him back.

"No fighting in the car," James said, kicking Harry's foot from across the car.

"Oh, party pooper. And don't kick my leg. It's fragile and healing."

"If you would have stayed off of it, it would have been fine by now."

Harry quietly mocked him, mumbling little nothings under his breath.

\-\

They pulled up to King's Cross and as soon as people noticed the car pulling up Harry and the other occupants threw themselves to the other side of the limo as crazed fans threw themselves at the car.

"I LOVE YOU HARRY!" could be heard from the screams of joy outside the car.

"I don't really need to go to school this year," Harry said from the floor where he was sitting with Bonnie, who had fallen into his lap when everyone moved over. "Quick, drive away!" he yelled to the driver.

The window between the driver and the seating area slid open. "I'm sorry sir. But they're blocking the road, there's no way to get through without plowing them over."

"Didn't anyone think of calling police or something to keep the fans at bay?" He sighed. "This is like Health Class in Victoria's when they made me stand in a crowd with people that had colds and I wasn't allowed to wear my gloves or any protective clothing."

His parents, Sirius and Remus all looked at him.

"I had serious issues, alright!"

Bonnie giggled behind her hand and sighed. "That was funny. I thought you were going to have heart attack that day and maybe lose some blood after you scrubbed off a layer of skin."

"They were contaminated; nasty little snotty students standing around me. Who knows where their _dirty_ hands had been. Who knows where the hands of my sexually obsessed, dirty, traveling American fans have been. I can't go out there, I'll hyperventilate."

"It's true, I've seen it happen," Fish said. "It's why we never go to shopping malls anymore."

"Harry, I can give you a calming draught and you won't even realize your fans are there. We'll just surround you with your guards," Bonnie said.

"No."

"I don't think we would be able to open the door anyway," Sirius said, trying to open the door. It didn't budge and inch.

"WAIT, HE'S COMING OUT!" someone shouted outside.

"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled.

"What? The door didn't even move, how was I supposed to know that they'd notice it?" Sirius defended himself.

There was sudden silence around the limo and people began to back off the car.

"I think they've settled down," James said. "It's quiet."

"It's the sound of death. They're going to kill me by tearing off my skin and selling it on E-bay."

"You have the most horrific thoughts about your fans," Bonnie said, crawling off his lap. "Now come on."

Harry pulled her back. "Don't go out yet. Let them go first," Harry said, indicating to his guards.

Sirius pushed open the door and two of the guards headed out and the others followed letting Harry and Bonnie out last and the last guard followed behind. There was a row of people lined up on each side. Reporters and fans all held back by aurors and police that apparently had shown up but couldn't keep them off the car. The second he stepped outside the fans erupted into screams of joy again and shouts of ecstasy as they held up their signs to show their love for him.

He felt a little uncomfortable. He wasn't a rock band.

Reporters took picture after picture, snapping shots as he passed. Bonnie tightened her grip on his hand to comfort him. Harry smiled at her and then at the cameras, trying not to shake with nerves. His guard kept one hand near his back to lead him forward while his other guards stood close at his front. He wasn't wearing his gloves so he didn't shake anyone's hand, not that he would have, but he did sign some people's autographs just to see what kind of pictures they had of him. One girl had his picture from Elle Girl Magazine from the summer before with his against his motorcycle. The one that wasn't real. Some others had ones from newspapers and other magazines where his face was slightly hidden and he even caught sight of him and Bonnie at his birthday party. An article he hadn't read before. Bonnie was asked to sign that one to. Soon they made it through King's Cross and to platform 9¾. Their chauffer and butler were there to levitate their things. Then they made it through only to endure wizard press, which Harry refused to smile at or do anything for. They should have to pay for all the times they'd called him "attention-seeking" and "insane." He also didn't sign any autographs because he knew half the people and it was kind of awkward. His guards ushered him onto the train and to a private compartment where the family could say their good-byes and see you at school.

Harry sat down. "That was fun," he said sarcastically.

"I think you secretly enjoyed it," Bonnie said.

"I guess. You know something we should have asked the Headmaster before we left. How am I supposed to fulfill any Head Boy duties if it's going to be like this?"

"Well it'll probably only be the first years that bother you. Everyone else has gone to school with you; they shouldn't have to ask for an autograph."

"Didn't stop girls from stalking me in the hallways last year."

"You'll have more guards this year," Fish pointed out.

Harry sighed and rested his head on Bonnie's shoulder. "And to believe that it was only two years ago that me and Ron were on the verge of breaking off our friendship forever and everyone was wearing "Potter Stinks" pins and hoping I got eaten by a dragon in the Tri-Wizard Tournament." He sighed, as though this was the memory he would use in a Patronus.

"I can't believe people did that," Fish said. "Hyp was so shocked that people would mock you he kissed your robes, told you he would never do that to you and then he told me his therapist made him write a letter to the people at your school telling them how angry he was. He didn't send it of course."

"I didn't know that."

"He was too embarrassed to tell you," Fish smiled.

"Poor Hyp. He has so much therapy. Is his step-mother leaving him alone by the way, now that she knows what he is?"

"He said she found it sexually enticing and so he immediately moved in with us. His father wasn't all that disappointed."

"What's he doing now?"

"He's going to Cambridge with Toilet. By the way, they both wanted me to ask you if you could write them both letters of recommendation. They were going to question you at Sober Day but you looked busy to them."

"I'd be glad to. How did they get into Cambridge?"

"They used their sad stories and the fact that they helped you win the war of course. Being in St. Jimmy's army is helping a lot of your followers get into dream colleges."

"Well good. I'm glad they're getting some kind of reward out of the stupid war."

There was a large banging at the door and they all looked up to see the fingers of obviously short students clinging to the window, trying to pull themselves up to look through. Harry's guards were having quite the time trying to pull them all away.

"GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR BEFORE I BLAST YOU ALL!" came Lawsin's harsh voice through the door.

"But I want to see Sir St. Jimmy!" cried the voice of a first year. "He's so awesome."

Then came a familiar voice as the door opened. "I'm sorry, there's no more room. You'll have to stay out," said Luna, shoving the door closed as she stepped in. With Harry, Bonnie, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fish, Tim and Tom in one compartment, there really wasn't any room left. "Hey. I come bearing news and I just hope nobody plans to shoot the messenger. I made it through the swarms of first years alive so…"

"What is it Luna?" Harry asked.

"Well, the infamous Draco Malfoy is being rumored to return this year. Finally coming out of wherever it was he was hidden. But there is still no sign of Lucius."

"Where did you hear this?" Harry asked.

"The Quibbler. It's true this time. We have a great source this time. Someone who will get this information far faster than any of the other newspapers. I'm taking over the paper and it's going to be the best it has ever been. I—"

"Luna!"

"Draco Malfoy told me himself. He said he wanted me to warn you so you didn't go off and strangle him when he just showed up. He says he means no harm and that he had changed his mind during the last minute after Voldemort almost killed Bonnie. I'm sure he was _so_ disappointed," she said sarcastically. "But he says he _would_ have turned to the light side but you were already too far into the war. So he doesn't want you to freak out on him."

"Well, are you in contact with him right now?"

"He's not taking the train. He's at Hogwarts already discussing his probation with Dumbledore."

"Well, I won't hurt him. Unless he happens to come near me while I'm in a really bad mood. I'll hit him with my cane if he does. But other than that he should be fine. It's not like I'll be taking classes with him most of the time."

"Well good. I'm glad we're all in agreement. He's being a very nice boy these days I'll have you know. He looked so forlorn. And poor to. It was kind of funny. His hair was straggly and he had dirt under his nails. It was strange to see the clean and pompous Draco Malfoy look so homely. I quite enjoyed it."

"I'll enjoy it to," Ron said.

"Thanks for the news Luna. Why did he come to you though?"

"He said I was nice to him last year. I don't remember being nice to him, ever, but I guess I wasn't mean to him either. We didn't exactly talk. But whatever. He was very quiet. I think he was disturbed or something."

"Do you think he knows where his father is?" Harry asked.

"He says he left his father when Lucius decided he was planning your assassination as revenge for killing his master and then he planned to take over where Voldemort left off. He said he hasn't seen or heard from him since then."

"That's nice. Three months after the war ends and I already have someone planning my assassination. I guess I saw that coming though," Harry said. "Thanks again Luna."

"No problem. That's all the information I've got and I've gotta go. The youngest Chang has come to school this year spreading gossip about his older sister and I have Dean continuing my count on how many times Lavender snorts while she's laughing so hard."

"Well please give us the number and some info," Bonnie said.

"Will do. See you guys later," Luna said, opening the door again and moving herself back into the hall, squeezing past the anxious first years. One almost got in but Dasin grabbed the excited and shell-shocked little boy by the collar and pulled him back into the hall and closed the door.

The next moment the whistle of the train blew and the train began its motion from King's Cross and there was a large sway in the hallway as a group of first years fell on each other over the hall floor.

"I can tell this is going to be an interesting year," Harry smiled, leaning his head on Bonnie's shoulder.

\-\

"Anything off the trolley?" Darsin asked, opening the compartment for them. "They have Tootsie Rolls this year, especially for Harry."

"Ooooh, I suddenly love being famous," Harry said, jumping from his seat and leaving the compartment to buy five giant Tootsie Rolls. "Anyone else want something while I'm out here?" He bought a bit of everything and let people pick and choose while he held the Tootsie Rolls for himself.

\-\

When the train finally stopped Harry was ordered to wait in his compartment until the crowd thinned out and he would be able to get his own carriage. They actually had to take two separate carriages and when they got to the hall they were the last ones in. They walked into the hall quietly without much notice to themselves and Fish and the others (Tim, Tom, Hermionie, Ron and Ginny) went to take their seat at the Gryffindor table. Harry stopped at the door. Bonnie felt Harry stop as she was holding his hand and looked back to see what was wrong. His guards got closer to see if he had been hit with some kind of curse upon arrival.

Harry stared silently at the empty Slytherin table. There were only second and third years and Blaise Zabinni beside Draco Malfoy. He suddenly had the most horrible grasp over the fact that he had killed the Slytherin House. He dropped Bonnie's hand. "I just… need a moment."

"Harry?"

"I'm just gonna… step outside for a moment." Harry pushed Bonnie's hand away and turned to head out of the hall again, Josh quickly following before his guards did.

Bonnie turned to look at the Slytherin table where Harry had been staring and realized what he must be thinking. There were two seventh years, zero sixth years, zero fifth years, zero fourth years, and the rest of the house. Four generations of Slytherins died in the war and Harry blamed himself for it all. She decided to leave this one to Josh and let herself sit down with the others at the table, and watch the door as the first years filed in and Harry stayed in the hallway.

While the first years were getting sorted Harry was sitting against the wall a little ways away from the Great Hall doors so the first years wouldn't tell the whole school the Savior was having a breakdown outside.

He had his hands firmly planted into his hair, his legs pulled to his chest and his head rested on his knees. Josh kneeled in front of him.

"Harry, are you okay?" He guessed not when Harry sniffed and he saw him hold back a sob. "Harry, I can't help if I don't know what's upsetting you."

Harry made a light sniff again and took a deep breath, lifting his head again. "I killed the Slytherin table," he stated plainly. "Didn't you see it? I killed off at least four years of Slytherins."

"They were death eaters, Harry," Josh said carefully.

"They were fourteen. I was trying to stop my own death when I was fourteen and I was the cause of theirs. They were stupid kids, they didn't know what they were doing, and I didn't even give them a chance."

"They knew what they were doing joining Voldemort Harry. They may have been young but they weren't stupid." Josh sat down with him and put his hand on his shoulder. "Harry, calm down okay? You only did what you were supposed to. You were not killing innocent civilian Slytherins. They knew exactly what they were doing and they knew what they were getting into. It's not your fault; you were only doing what you were destined to do. And think of it this way, if they really were supposed to live and everything you did was wrong, then why hasn't God punished you yet huh?"

"He has. He won't cure my leg."

"Well that's your fault for walking all over it. What has he really done that could possibly tell you that you've done wrong?" Josh asked.

Harry thought for a second and then looked up, wiping a tear off his cheek. "Nothing I guess."

"So doesn't that mean that he's proud? You're getting married, Bonnie's still there for you and all your friends made it though the war. That's gotta be some kind of sign right?"

"That makes sense," Harry said.

"Yeah." Josh pulled his hand away from Harry's shoulder. "Are you feeling better now?"

"I guess," Harry said, taking a deep breath. "I just need a moment."

Josh nodded and stood to give Harry some space.

\-\

Fifteen minutes later Harry walked back into the Great Hall, refusing to look at the Slytherin table as he sat down beside Bonnie with his back to the last of the Slytherins. He kept his hand firmly on his cane and stared at his food as though he didn't know what he was supposed to do with it.

"Are you alright Jimmy?" Fish asked quietly.

"Fine. I'm just great," Harry said, which, was code that they should change the subject.

So Fish did. "This is really nice. At our old school we had cheap government food that they probably serve to American's in some suburban high school. And now I get to eat off the fine China that Harry used to tell us about when he was eleven."

"It used to be so fabulous when I was younger," Harry smiled. "But when I was eleven I paid more attention to shiny silverware than my arm being cut off so you can imagine how I exaggerated."

They could all tell Harry was in a good mood again and so dinner went on and then into the impressive desert. When Harry stood up, levering onto his cane as he moved his leg over the bench. "I hate my stupid leg. I'm going to curse it, every time I have to sit down and get up from this stupid table," Harry said, pointing angrily at the bench.

"Yes, it's so sad we don't have chairs. But I guess the decorators weren't expecting their students to be as… frail."

Harry turned around at the comment and his wand made contact with the very center of Draco Malfoy's forehead. "You…have no right to make fun of me. Coward."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't say that. You don't deserve to be able to apologize to me."

"We're adults now, the war is over, and you killed off my table—" He stopped when Harry's wand started digging into his forehead. "Guess you didn't want to hear that. I'm very sorry for kidnapping your girlfriend and almost getting her killed and I'm sorry for being a prune and I'm very sorry that my forehead isn't made of steal. Could you please stop twisting your wand into my forehead, I think it's going to wrinkle."

"What do you care? This is as nice as I'm ever going to be to you. You should be so lucky I'm not shooting your head off right now."

"Yes, I hear you're going slightly insane," Draco laughed, stopping when Harry pulled his wand away painfully.

"Where'd you hear that?" Harry asked as Draco touched his forehead to feel blood and a red dot where Harry's wand pulled away.

"I read it in the paper."

"Yeah, well I hear you're poor. You have no right to make fun of my leg or my mind. And if you say one more thing to me I'm going to cut something off. And don't try asking what it will be. It's a surprise." Harry turned away and left, slamming his cane on the floor with each step.

\-\

Dumbledore led Harry to the Head Boy rooms with the new Head Girl, Hermione Granger. They were both told their duties and then they had a tour of their rooms. Harry was very happy with his room. It was dark green, (strangely enough) and his four poster was laid with black Egyptian cotton comforter. Hermione thought this was a little Slytherin of him to enjoy these colors this much but he ignored her. Her room was normal Gryffindor colors with very girly décor. There was a large common room with a fireplace, a loveseat, and two chairs just like the Gryffindor common room. Then two large desks on each side of the room across and down the stairs from their rooms. There was a bright chandelier hanging from the ceiling right above the commons. On each side of the commons were a set of stairs that led up to their rooms and between the two rooms were two large bathrooms for each of them.

Downstairs in the commons were four doors, one for each House common room that they could get to.

They both went to the Gryffindor common room to hang out with the others for a little while.

\-\

"Do you have anger problems toward Draco Malfoy, Harry," Bonnie asked. "I think he might have learned his lesson. You should lighten up."

"He called me mental; I can lighten up on him when I feel like it. In the meantime I'll pick on him whenever he comes to my attention. And I don't want you sitting near him, just like last year. Little pervert."

"It's too late for him Harry. I doubt he'll do anything," Bonnie smiled, placing her laced hand in Harry's as he laced their fingers.

"Just to be safe. And when are your meetings with Snape?"

"Before dinner. Why?"

"That's not very informative Bonnie."

"Two hours before dinner. Now why?"

"I wanted to send one of my guards down with you to watch Snape."

"Harry! Are you serious?" Bonnie asked.

"I'm very serious. I don't trust him at all. We all know this."

"Well I do. Harry he's not that bad. What do you think he's going to do?"

Harry sighed and glared at her. "Fine. Can I see your ring?"

"Why?" Bonnie asked in shock, holding her hand to her chest with the other and covering her ring.

"I'm not taking it from you, I just want to see it," Harry told her, logically.

"Why?"

"I gave it to you; will you just give me it for three seconds please?"

"Are you going to give it right back?" Bonnie asked suspiciously.

"What would I do with it?"

"You didn't answer the question," Bonnie persisted.

"Yes, I'll give it right back, okay?"

Bonnie slowly let her hand go and held it out to him. Harry stared at her perfectly manicured hand and the soft skin beneath the lace. There, surrounded by the lacing, was the ring he put on her finger. "Bonnie, how do you get this thing off?"

"You can't until the wedding."

"Then how do I get the ring?"

"Divorce."

"We haven't been married yet."

Bonnie just shrugged.

Harry sighed and took out his wand and grabbed her hand, pulling it over to him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm putting a protection spell on your ring because I know, for sure now, that you'll never ever take it off. And if Snape, or anyone else, for whatever reason, gets too close to you, it'll send off an electric shock. _You_ won't feel this of course."

"And where did you find this spell?" Bonnie asked, relaxing as Harry drew his wand around the band of the ring.

"Merlin. He used it on his girlfriend and she didn't complain," Harry said.

"Well, maybe you should marry her."

"She would be my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, etcetera, etcetera, grandmother. That would just be really wrong."

"Hmm."

Harry let go of her hand as he finished and put his wand away.

"You don't really think Snape is like that do you?" Ron asked. "I mean, I know he's a slime ball, but he's not as low as to hit on a student or anything."

"This is not just for Snape. This is for Draco, the other boys in this school and anyone else who happens to wander in."

"Won't this put a damper on our sleeping arrangements and our hand holding and such," Bonnie asked.

"It doesn't work on me. I gave you the ring. And it doesn't work on Ginny and Hermione either because they're girls. But it will work on Ron and Fish and Tim and Tom so… sorry but I ran out of space for exceptions."

"We should all start heading to bed. We have classes in the morning," Fish said.

Harry's mouth dropped. "Fish, I'm surprised at you. You want to go to bed early?" Harry asked.

"I have to do well in class. You said so yourself," Fish said, standing up.

"I did say that. Oh well, I guess we'll all head to bed then. Come on pet," Harry said, taking her hand to lead her to the Head's rooms.

"Harry, you can't bring a girl into your room just because you have your own room. Especially because you're a head boy and not even if she's your fiancée," Hermione informed him.

"And your point is?" Harry asked slowly.

Hermione sighed. "Oh forget it." She leaned over to kiss Ron goodnight while Harry waited for Bonnie to grab her night clothes and her robes for class the next morning.

"If we're all going to be that way, do you want to stay in my room?" Hermione asked Ron with a shy smile.

"You're going to be improper Hermione?" Ron laughed.

"If Bonnie can do it than so can I. I wear pants."

Ron smiled and kissed her again. "I'll grab some clothes, hold on."

"This is so unfair," Fish said. "This will be the first night at school that I sleep alone."

Ginny looked at him, her eyebrows raised suspiciously.

"Um… sorry."

"Don't apologize to me. I feel so sorry for the slutty girls who had to sleep in your bed before." She turned on her heel and headed up to her dorm.

"Ginny!" He went to follow her up the stairs but slid back down as she reached the top and fell on his back. "Oww, dammit!"

"Fish, you're really bad at this."

"Shut up," Fish groaned. "I can't help it that I have no experience in relationships that last longer than three hours."

"Three hours?" Harry questioned.

"Well she has to get redressed."

"My friend the player," Harry sighed. "How it ended up that I'm still a virgin and you're more experienced than the great Sirius Black in his day, I don't know."

"Thanks Harry. I'm a slut."

"That's not what I said!"

"It was implied."

"It was not. Are you going to lie there all night?"

"I might," Fish said, as two fifth year girls walked over to the stairs, giggling. They all looked at him as he stared up at them, apparently having no intention of moving out of the way.

"Are you going to move?" one of them asked bravely, blushing red at the older boy.

"I do not intend to no."

The girls smiled and blushed before stepping over him onto the stairs, Fish, not able to help himself, took this opportunity to look up their skirts.

"Fish, you bad, bad boy," Bonnie said, coming down the stairs. "What are you doing here, looking up girl's skirts?" she asked, sitting on the end of the stairs. "Where's Ginny?"

"I said something wrong and now she hates me," Fish said sadly.

"I'm sure if you explain to her—"

"Why I always have girls sleeping in my bed?" Fish finished.

"Oh. You said that to her?"

"I didn't say it to her. It just, popped out," Fish explained, motioning with his hand.

"You poor thing," Bonnie said, reaching out to stroke his hair but pulled away when he got shocked.

"Oww!" he whined, rolling onto his stomach. "My hair hurts."

"I'm so sorry Fish. Harry!"

"What?"

"I'm sure you'll fix it Fish," Bonnie said comfortingly, as Fish turned over again to look up at her. "Now I'm going. If you look up my skirt, I'll do it again."

Fish put his hand over his eyes as Bonnie stepped over him and headed over to Harry.

"Night Fish," they both said, leaving the room.

Ron came down as well and went over to Hermione, eyeing Fish lying silently in front of the stairs. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Let's get to bed," Hermione said, not intending to tell Ron about Fish and his sister. Ron had been lenient on the relationship but what Fish had said defined the exact kind of boy Ron didn't want dating his sister.


	35. Mooshiemooshie Dog Hates Harry Potter

Chapter 34

Mooshie-mooshie Dog Hates Harry Potter

"Oh, Harry, wait. I forgot to get Mooshie-mooshie. He must still be in his bag, I haven't seen him since this morning," Bonnie said, shoving her things into his arms and running back through the portrait as Ron and Hermione came out.

"Where's she going?" Ron asked, seeing Harry's arms full of clothes.

"She went to get her dog."

"Oh yes, where has it been this week?" Hermione asked.

"Probably with its trainer."

Bonnie came back out of the commons cuddling a furry brown dog that still looked like a puppy. "There's my Mooshie-mooshie, he's hungry isn't he?" she cooed to the puppy with a bag on her shoulder, probably full of dog related items.

"Do you really need all that?" Harry asked.

"I haven't seen little Mooshie-mooshie bear in seven days. He needs all the attention I can give him. Don't worry; he's properly trained now, so he won't pee on anything."

"Oh goodie. Come on," Harry said, walking towards the Head's room.

They got up to the Head's room and each couple separated to their own rooms. Harry set down Bonnie's nightgown on the bed and placed her robes in the closet, which he now got as special treatment along with a dresser. He sat down on his bed and watched Bonnie set Mooshie-mooshie on the floor and set up a water bowl and a food bowl by the door.

"Harry, I forgot to show you. On my little trip with grandmamma, she even bought Mooshie-mooshie this adorable little black and diamond encrusted collar. Isn't it cute?"

"It's adorable," Harry said, pulling off his shirt and searching his trunk for his night clothes.

"Harry, I don't think you appreciate Mooshie-mooshie's collar. He—" She stopped when she saw Harry without his shirt on. _When did his shoulders become so broad?_ she questioned herself. She blinked back into reality when Harry pulled a black T-shirt on.

"What?"

"Nothing," Bonnie blinked, turning away again to pet her dog.

Harry crawled over to sit beside her on the floor. He pushed back her curls and leaned in to kiss her neck. "Come to bed now, pet. I'm sure Mooshie-mooshie can eat all by himself."

"Okay."

Harry pulled away to change his bottoms and Bonnie went to the bathroom to change into her nightgown before climbing into bed with Harry. He pulled her in against his chest to spoon her and pulled her curls back from her neck to kiss it again. "I love that we get to stay together again during school. I hated it that you were at the school last year but I wasn't allowed to hold you while I was sleeping."

"You poor thing. I'm sure it was so stressful for you," Bonnie mocked.

"It was. I missed you on all those lonely nights without you."

"Well, you won't have any lonely nights this year darling," Bonnie said, stroking his cheek and leaning back on his shoulder to lean up for a kiss which he readily bestowed. They were separated by a small hop on the bed and a fuzzy ball shoving itself between them.

Harry pulled away and looked toward it to find himself face to face with Mooshie-mooshie. "You sleep at the end of the bed," he said orderly.

The puppy whined and pushed at his hand on Bonnie's waist as though telling him to move it away.

"Aww, Harry, he just wants to sleep with us."

"Well he can sleep at the end of the bed. He has to learn his place."

"That's not very nice Harry. He's just a baby," Bonnie whined, rolling onto her back as Harry sat up to grab her puppy.

"He's a dog. Are you sure he's been trained?"

"I guess the trainer forgot about his sleeping arrangements," she said sarcastically.

Harry set Mooshie at the end of the bed and told him to stay, which he did, curling into a little ball and staring up at him with little puppy dog eyes. Apparently they didn't work on Harry as he just crawled back under the covers with Bonnie who was sending her puppy a pitying face from across the bed. Harry wrapped his arm around her waist and she turned onto her side again.

"You're so hurtful Harry. Mooshie-mooshie won't like you if you're mean to him."

"He likes me enough. Let's get to sleep so we can get up in the morning."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

\-\

Bonnie woke up the next morning, curled against Harry's chest and their legs tangled together. She slowly woke up and looked up at Harry who was still fast asleep and content. She untangled their legs and scooted up in the bed to sit up and looked down at him. He'd been such a stressful busybody lately it was nice to watch him sleep. She stroked back messy bangs and looked over his scar. It was now just a lightning bolt scar and would never cause him pain because their wasn't anyone to inflict it. Harry must be relieved about that, she thought.

She leaned down and kissed his scar making him groan and turn into his pillow, pulling her waist with him. She scooted down and removed his hand from her waist to climb out of the bed. She looked down at her little puppy. He seemed to be asleep. When she moved out of bed to head toward the bathroom for the shower she was stopped by a hand at her wrist.

"Where are you going?"

She looked over at him. "I'm going to take a shower. Do you mind?"

"Yes, come back to sleep with me. I don't mind if you smell," Harry told her, pulling her toward him.

"Oh, but I do. Sorry kumquat." She kissed his lips and then headed into the bathroom.

Harry sighed and curled up in bed again. A few seconds later he thought maybe Bonnie had decided to come back to bed with him because of the weight near his side. When he turned over he saw Mooshie-mooshie.

He stared at the dog for a few seconds as it stuck its tongue out at him. "Why did I buy you?" Harry asked, more to himself then the dog.

He decided he'd rather get out of bed then lay here with the hairy dog so he climbed out of his warm cocoon and headed over to his dresser. He took out his wand and did a quick cleaning spell and magically changed his clothes to a pair of tight black jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. He stared at his robes hanging in the closet wondering if he was still supposed to wear a uniform if he wasn't really going to a class. He decided to put them on anyway without wearing his tie. Casual but still in some of his uniform.

He grabbed his bag and headed into the common room to wait for Bonnie. Just as he was walking down the stairs he saw Prose slither over to him from under a chair next to the warm burning fire. He sure had gotten big over the summer. He was very large and would probably scare the crap out of first years around the school.

Harry smiled at him as he crouched down. "You know I left the door open for you. I knew you wouldn't eat the evil Mooshie-mooshie dog," Harry joked.

"The evil dog master? What has the fuzz ball done to you?" Prose asked, slithering around up to Harry's arm.

"Nothing, I just think he's silently plotting something devious. His puppy dog eyes can't fool me."

"Of course master."

"So why didn't you come up? I miss you Prose. If the dog can sleep with us than so can you."

"I fear the dog may chew on me while sleeping or I'll eat it in my sleep and choke to death on its fur."

"That's not nice Prose. You know you're getting too big to fit in my pocket. How are you going to be a traveling pet anymore?" Harry asked, stroking under Prose's chin.

"I'll lie on your shoulders."

"Oh, I'm sure Dumbledore will love that."

"I'm sure he will. I don't want to stay here all day with the dog. I'm not a lovable, furry, house trained purebred master. I need sunlight."

"Alright, but you have to try not to scare any first years. Or anyone else for that matter. My dad still doesn't like you."

"I'm sorry master."

"It's not your fault. Come on," Harry said, letting Prose slither up his arm and onto his shoulders, walking over to the couch to wait.

A few minutes later Bonnie came down clean and fresh and ready for class.

"You're not taking him to class are you?" Bonnie asked.

"I'm not going to class; I'm going to Dumbledore's office."

"Still."

"Prose needs attention Bonnie. He gets lonely when left alone in the commons."

"Well he can talk to Mooshie-mooshie. I'm sure they'll become great friends."

"Prose doesn't think so," Harry told her simply. "Let's get going to breakfast, shall we?"

"What about Ron and Hermione?"

"They're taking too long."

"We took about the same time you did," Hermione said, walking down the stairs with Ron. She looked at the large snake on Harry's shoulders. "Shouldn't Prose stay here? He's getting kind of big."

"Prose is lonely okay? He doesn't want to stay here with the dog all by himself. And I am not going to deny him life outside the common room. Okay?"

"Harry—"

"No, you can't change my mind. He's coming." He turned to Prose and started heading out of the room mumbling sweet things to Prose and running his finger under his chin.

\-\

"Harry, your father would like to know if you're trying to give him a heart attack," Sirius asked sarcastically, as James was at the front table, slightly pale and hands shaking as it tried to bring food to his mouth.

"Prose doesn't want to be alone! He won't eat anyone," Harry said as Sirius walked away laughing to himself.

"Sir Harry, your snake keeps staring at me," Dean told Harry.

"Stop calling me that. We've known each other seven years now. It's disturbing."

"I'm _sorry_, but your snake wants to _eat_ me."

"No he doesn't. He just thinks you're pretty, Dean," Harry joked.

\-\

"Harry, you don't have to wear your uniforms anymore. You're not going to class so I don't see the point," Dumbledore said, sitting down behind his desk as Harry set Prose down on the floor, after asking the Headmaster of course.

"I just wasn't sure so I wore part of it anyway," Harry said, taking a seat in front of his desk. "So, what are we learning today?"

"You are going to learn to meditate Harry."

"Meditate? We're going back to Occlumency aren't we?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes at the old man.

"Not at the moment but we will at one point. No, the meditation is for levitation purposes."

"Levitating?"

"Yes, it's a very interesting practice and the meditation will be the most important part of this experience."

"What do I need levitation for?"

"I'm sure you'll find a purpose for it. The real point of this practice is that it starts off with the best meditation ever achieved."

"Cool. How do I do this?"

Dumbledore stood and went to his bookshelf and collected one very large book and then to the ledge near his window that held a lot of little trinkets. He took a small remember-all looking object and walked back to his desk and set them down in front of Harry. He picked up the book. "I want you to read this, beginning to end," he said, setting it down in Harry's hands. He then took the glass orb. "And this is a meditation sphere. There is smoke inside the sphere, black to represent a closed and relaxed mind. The book will explain to you how to work the sphere into your meditation. When you come back tomorrow, I expect you to be able to be able to accomplish something that's in that book."

"You want me to _read_ all day?" Harry whined.

"I do not expect you to finish this book in one day Harry."

"Oh, but you just said—"

"I expect you to finish reading it in a few hours. The rest of the time you will be practicing what the book teaches you. Or what you can before tomorrow morning." Harry sighed. "Come now, Harry. You went to a special school, did you not? I'm sure you're an exceptional reader."

"I went for art and the piano and I was exceptional at mathematics and linguistics," Harry told him, "but I suppose I learned to speed read at some point in my six years there."

"Well good then. You're dismissed."

"This was enlightening," Harry mumbled, standing from his chair with the book in one hand and slipping the sphere into his pocket so he could grab his cane. "Come on Prose, we're going back to the commons."

Prose slithered along behind his feet as they headed down the stairs with Harry's guards following closely behind him to catch him if he fell. "I've never hated these stupid stairs before. I thought they were funny. Now I want to smack whoever thought these stupid things up," he said, quickly gripping the railing as the stairs moved. His guards grabbed his other arm gently to make sure he didn't fall.

"You know Prose; I don't remember seeing either Ginny or Fish this morning at breakfast. I wonder what happened to them this morning."

\-\

Earlier this morning in the Gryffindor commons:

Ginny walked down the stairs with her bag over her shoulder, ready to head off to class. She stopped at the last step when she saw Fish asleep on the floor in front of the stairs. He was rolled onto one side in the robes he was wearing yesterday and his perfect blond hair was almost as messy as Harry's only Fish's was long enough to spread above his head like a halo.

Ginny crouched in front of him and sat down on the last step looking down at him. "What a pitiful excuse for man," she mumbled, staring at his young face. He looked around twelve when he was sleeping, kind of like how Bonnie described Harry when she was reminiscing on how cute Harry was when he was sleeping. Bonnie guessed it had something to do with the fact that they both grew up so fast.

But having a bad family and being one of St. Jimmy's followers did not mean you could be a respected slut; or slut magnet. And she had heard about his "dates" from that one Sober Day. He obviously found his way around the group. Did he really find it necessary to sleep with everyone? (Besides Hanna.) These thoughts didn't help Ginny forgive Fish at all for what he had said last night, but as she stared down at him sleeping she had to wonder how desperate a guy had to be to spend the entire night on the hard stone floor at the bottom of the stairs, probably getting stepped on by the girls who had left before her and yelled at.

"Just because he's desperate doesn't mean I have to forgive him," Ginny mumbled to herself.

Reluctantly, knowing she would have to wake the boy up—it would be cruel to let him be late on his first day when he was trying to make a good impression—so she shoved his shoulder with her foot and received a low groan in reply. She nudged him again.

"Jus' fi' mur' minutes Gin," he mumbled, curling up around the foot that had shoved him.

_How'd he know it was me?_

"Fish, you should get up or you'll be late for your classes."

Fish opened his eyes and looked up at her. He quickly sat up and grabbed her hands. "Ginny, I'm so sorry for what I said. I didn't mean to say that, it just came out. I'm so sorry for hurting your feelings. Please forgive me," Fish said quickly, hold her hand and looking up at her.

Ginny could see his sincerity but she wasn't sure if she was ready for a relationship with a guy who had so much experience. She was hardly experienced in the areas he was. She had hardly gone past first base with any of the guys she had dated. Now that she knew how he felt about it, she didn't know if she could deal with that and her fear of him thinking her inadequate with what he'll be expecting.

Ginny sighed. "You should get dressed or you'll be late for class," Ginny said, standing and walking away from the stairs to leave him.

Fish watched her. "Is that a maybe?" he asked loudly.

Present time:

"Fish, are you okay?" Hermione asked, leaning to the side to whisper to him as James lectured the class.

Fish wrote her down a short note and slipped it quietly onto the desk, still watching Harry's father.

Hermione unfolded the note and read:

**I think Ginny broke up with me.**

She looked to Fish who was scribbling sad little doodles on his notes. She wrote back:

**Was it the comment you made last night? I thought she would have forgotten about it by now.**

Fish read and wrote back:

**I apologized to her this morning. I thought I did a **_**very**_** good job at apologizing to. I don't know what I can do to change her image of me.**

Hermione read and wrote back:

**I'll try and talk to her for you and find out what's wrong. In the meantime try to be as mellow as you can. Don't look too depressed but don't look too content either. I think you both make a great couple and I want to see you both stay together. Something like this isn't going to break you. Promise.**

Fish read the note and turned to smile at her in thank you.

\-\

"Where's Harry?" Bonnie asked, sitting down next to Ginny who had her head lowered. She was sitting opposite Fish, who was staring right at her.

"I think he's in his commons doing whatever Dumbledore has him working on," Ron answered, grabbing a sandwich from the center of the table.

"Which is what?"

Ron shrugged.

Fifteen minutes into lunch Harry walked into the hall, his face deep into a large book he was holding with one hand and using the other to hold his cane. He sat down next to Bonnie and kissed her cheek before turning back to his book.

"Is it interesting?" she smiled, looking over the cover.

"Dumbledore wants me to finish it before I go back tomorrow. And I have to be able to do something."

"He's being hard on you, isn't he?"

"He doesn't _really_ think I'll be able to finish this book but I will. I'll show him. I can read. I'm not a master of linguistics for nothing."

"Of course dear," Bonnie giggled. She turned to talk to Ginny who was staring deeply into her food to ignore the stare of her "ex" boyfriend. "Hey Gin? Can we talk?" Bonnie said, taking her friend's wrist and pulling her out of her seat without waiting for an answer. She sent Hermione a look telling her to follow.

Harry looked up from his book and up at Fish who was taking Ginny's position at staring deeply into his food, letting his blond hair fall over his face. "Fish, she still angry? Didn't you apologize?"

"Yes. I apologized a lot. I guess she didn't care that I was sorry."

"Maybe she just needs some time. I'm sure Bonnie will figure it out. She's great at pointing out what you already know yourself. And Ginny knows you both care for each other and that you're sorry and she'll come back."

"I don't know. She didn't look very happy this morning," Fish said. He pushed his food away and dropped his head onto the table.

Harry reached into his pocket and held out a Tootsie Roll. "Want some American sugar? It makes me feel better."

"I'd rather have alcohol."

"That won't solve anything, Fish. Are you going to play the alcoholic every time you and Ginny have a little fight?" Harry asked, putting the candy back in his pocket.

"We might not have the chance for any other little fights," Fish sighed into the wood.

Harry rolled his eyes knowing both parties were over reacting and would end up getting back together.

Unknown to any of them, while one relationship was soon to get back together another was soon to drift.

\-\

That night after dinner Bonnie went down to the Dungeons after Harry pulled himself away from his book long enough to quiz Bonnie on a few defensive curses and to stay away from empty classrooms and corners. She ended up being followed by one of his guards since Harry didn't exactly need them at the moment and the guard was to stand in the room with her while she was working with Snape.

Snape was not pleased but told his student he understood her future husband's insanity and didn't push the matter.

Throughout the week, Harry studied his meditation, from a book he hadn't actually had to finish in one day, but he had. Dumbledore had only been kidding to see if Harry would actually get it done. Bonnie was working hard on her homework and her extra assignments with Snape.

Ginny and Fish were still on the rocks but with Fish's constant apologizing she was bound to give in at some point. He just looked so adorable with that puppy dog pout.

Meanwhile, Harry and Bonnie didn't see each other during the day except for meals, which Harry spent his time reading instead of eating. Then they spent their nights studying for their classes and then headed to bed together with Mooshie-mooshie dog trying to squeeze in-between them and under the covers. This didn't please Harry.

"Bonnie," Harry mumbled as they both lay quietly in bed, half-asleep.

"Hmm," she hummed.

"I hate your dog," he said, glaring at the fuzzy lump between them.

"Okay," Bonnie sighed, snuggling into her pillow.

.

.

.

AN: Please Review. If for nothing else but to reassure me every once in a while that people are still reading this story. Thanks.


	36. Drum Roll Please

Chapter 35

Drum Roll Please

Harry headed up to Professor Dumbledore's office the morning of the third week of school followed by his guards. "Hello Professor," he said, sitting down in his seat in front of the desk. "Are we moving away from Occlumency yet? I'm getting very good at it."

"I know. Actually you're going to classes today. I have a meeting with your soon to be father-in-law."

"Mr. Cameron?" Harry smiled. "What about?"

"The American's are blaming us for the destruction done to their cities. Merlin forbid we set Voldemort lose from our control," Dumbledore said sarcastically, wandering the room.

"Does that mean American President Bush will be there?" Harry asked, sitting at the end of his seat.

Dumbledore looked over at him to catch him quickly trying to hide the look of excitement. "That would make sense as we're visiting his country. Why?"

"Do you think I could come with? I've so wanted to meet the U.S. President since I was eight years old and a girl named Ash introduced me to American culture."

"I've heard that you have a lasting grudge against the American's," Dumbledore said.

"It was a lie! Who told you that?" Harry cried defensively, putting on his best act.

"Cameron," he said calmly, not falling for Harry's dramatics.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about. I love the Americans. Especially President Bush. His use of the English language is so… interesting."

"Then why was it prudent that Cameron point out your sending out for American newspapers so you could gouge out the eyes of any politicians."

"That's an _outright lie_. You should take me with you to the America's so that I can talk to Cameron about this," Harry said seriously, before smiling childishly.

"I don't know if Bush will want to see you. You'll have to behave yourself."

"I'm not _five_ Professor."

"Yes, but you're like your father. And he's twenty-three now and he still can't keep his pranks to himself."

"I will be the most well mannered seventeen year old they ever met from England."

"I suspect as much. Are you going dressed like that or would you like to change first?" Dumbledore asked, eyeing Harry's leather jacket and black jeans.

"You mean I can go?"

"I guess so. As long as you don't try to gouge anyone's eyes out."

"Never. And for your information, I like this outfit but if it makes you feel better I will leave the jacket."

"No, by all means if you wish to portray yourself as a punk then go ahead."

"Then I will, because that's exactly what I am."

"You're supposed to be a proper and prominent member of society. Not a hooligan."

"Punk. Not hooligan."

"I guess we're leaving now then. We'll take a portkey to Cameron's so that we can pick him up."

"Goodie."

They took their portkey and ended up in the library of Bonnie's house. Harry smiled at the comfort this house always gave him, especially this room, where Bonnie spent a lot of her time when alone. Now that he thought about it they were both spending an awful lot of time on their own these days.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Cameron entered the room. "St. Jim—Harry," he quickly corrected, making Harry smile. Cameron coughed. "Harry, what are you doing here?"

"I'm coming to meet President Bush with you," Harry smiled innocently.

Cameron looked to Dumbledore. "He asked very nicely."

"He has serious political issues with Bush. More then he did with Clinton. And his rein as U.S. president ended with a near impeachment because he had affair with an intern. And we all know Harry's feelings toward sex."

"He deserved the hurtful letter I sent him. I heard from a reliable source that he cried. I didn't tell him I was an eight year old," Harry told them.

"Harry, you can't come. I'd be afraid you'd attack someone," Cameron said.

"Please, I won't. I promise. I just want to meet him. I won't touch _anyone_," Harry said.

"What's the rule I taught you when you eight?"

"When in the presence of the politicians, don't speak unless spoken to. And if you have an opinion, save it for Christmas."

"Are you going to stick to that?"

"You're going to make me stick to an eight year old rule?" Harry whined.

"Yes, because you haven't changed much in this category. I know you'll fight with Bush till he's crying."

"Fine," he agreed, sighing heavily.

"Good. We should get going then. I really love this portkey invention. I don't have to waste five hours on a plane and then all that time in a car to get to the White House."

"We're going to the White House," Harry smiled, dazed in his own little world.

"Harry, if you anger secret service—"

"I can't anger the secret service. Everyone loves me," Harry flaunted.

"Sorry, but the Americans don't like you as much as everyone else does," Cameron said as Dumbledore held out the portkey.

"Well they're going to like me even less after today," Harry smiled, reaching for the portkey as well.

They portkeyed right in front of the White House and Harry stared in aww at the grand white house. Not because it was big, his own parent's house was bigger then this. It was because ever since the horrendous "Ashley Incident" he had been obsessed with the Americans. Not in an "I love America" kind of an obsession, more of an "I hate America" obsession. Ashley had an obsession with Britney Spears and all American pop culture and then she also had an obsession with Harry, her leader, St. Jimmy. She tried to shove the two together. The worst of all stalkers, one that snuck her way right into your group. She was crazed, but she was taken away by police and doctors. Ever since she had left Harry had not only hated America for thinking it was better then everyone else and for reasons that just were, he also hated it because it was one of the causes for Ashley's absolute insanity. And he was usually a friend to his follower's insanity but Ashley was so far gone there was no coming back.

He reached into his pocket in his boot and took out the little black book and opened it up. It was a list of all things he planned to do before he died. Number one: Take over the world, was crossed out because he figured this was as far as he would ever get in that department. Number two: Make a male U.S. President cry. He had apparently made Clinton cry but he hadn't been present. There also had never been a female president but you never knew about the future and he wanted to be specific. He smiled at his little notebook.

"Forty-one things down, 632 more before death," he said.

Cameron looked over his shoulder. "Why is Bonnie number four?" he asked, pointing to the number.

"Because I really wanted to make the president cry?"

"Why is killing Britney Spears before marriage?" he questioned.

"Because I _really_ hate her," Harry growled. Then stopped and started smiling again. "But that's for later. Let's go meet the new president," he said excitedly.

\-\

"Harry, you'll never be allowed in the White House again," Cameron said as they walked into the Head's common room.

"What did Harry do?" Bonnie asked, as she and Ginny sat on the couch with homework and Ron and Hermione were on the floor by the fire.

"Pet, it was so awesome," Harry said excitedly, running toward her. He sat down beside her and sighed with a huge smile on his face. "I made the president cry. It was so cool. I was just talking to him about my opinion on the war and how he only got to be president because of his father and how he had never really done anything to get his position and he just started crying. I was kicked out of course and I had to wait in the waiting room while Cameron and Dumbledore finished up their business but it was so awesome. I feel so happy right now."

"I'm very happy for you sweetie but you really shouldn't have done that?"

"I don't care. I'll write him a nice little letter later. But for the moment I feel really, really good. Like that time I beat up Rick."

"You know he wasn't really crying," Cameron said.

"Don't ruin this for me. His eyes were watering and he was crying on the inside. You know he was. And I'm going to bask in this glorious moment for at least a day. It will make me feel better. I almost fell down the stairs yesterday and I think I deserve to bask."

"Fine. But the next time we go to chat with politicians you won't be invited."

"But I enjoy it now. If you go to see someone other then the U.S. president I won't be trying to make them cry."

"I'll think about it. But you didn't follow the rules."

"I will next time. I promise. You can trust me."

"We'll think about. I have to go. I have a meeting with the Queen."

"Oh, will you tell her I said hello," Harry said. "She just sent me the nicest letter. Tell her I hope to write her soon."

"You can get along with the queen but not the president."

"Well the Queen never did anything to me," Harry said.

Cameron sighed. "Bye everyone. Bye sweetheart."

"Bye sir."

"Bye daddy."

After the two older men left Harry turned to the group. "Where are Fish and the twins?"

"They went to wander somewhere around the school," Bonnie said.

"Why are they by themselves?"

Nobody answered and they all hid behind their homework. Harry looked at Ginny who was hiding in her book. Harry sighed and left the room to head up to his bedroom. He searched his trunk and found the marauder's map before leaving the Head's dorms completely. He tapped the map with his wand and went searching for Fish and the twins.

He found them ten minutes later with his father, Sirius and Remus in James's office. "You didn't want to talk to Ginny so you went to find _my dad_?" Harry asked as he stood in the doorway.

"Your dad is cool," Fish said, pulling his feet onto the couch.

"You didn't tell us you were avoiding your girlfriend. What happened?" Sirius asked, leaning forward on the desk.

"I mentioned that it would be the first time I sleep alone, which it really isn't because I didn't really sleep with a lot of girls over the summer."

"You mentioned that you slept around to your serious girlfriend?" Sirius gasped, knowing from experience. "Even to flings you're not supposed to mention other girls."

"It was an _accident_. It's not like I _wanted_ to hurt her feelings," Fish defended.

"Well you've screwed yourself into a hole. Ginny is precious and a year younger then you and she probably thinks that she's too inexperienced for you because you've been with so many girls and now she feels like you'll be expecting something that she can't provide."

They all looked at Sirius surprised that he had come up with all of that.

"Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I've been through this before with this girl named Giselle. She was hot."

"That's great Sirius. But how am I supposed to fix it? What did you do?"

"Well I didn't make your mistake she just told me that was how she was feeling. Then we got drunk and had sex."

Harry looked at his father. "Is he drunk?"

"I don't know," James sighed, his elbow resting on the desk and his cheek in his hand.

Sirius sighed. "Why don't you try asking her what's bothering her and then she's going to tell you it's the fact that you're some kind of "slut" right? And then you're going to tell her that you're not anymore and that ever since you met her you realized that, now that you have her, you don't need anyone else. And something like she's better then any of the girls you've ever dated because she's real, she's not a slut, and she's much prettier. And then you have to tell her something personal about yourself. I once told a girl that I was a sex addict. It wasn't true but that's a personal disease to have."

"I can tell you have many strange dating stories, Sirius," Fish remarked.

"I do. I once dated this woman who was a very serious smoker. And she did this trick for me where she smoked her cigarette without using her mouth—"

"That's disgusting Sirius," Remus interrupted.

"Sorry."

"But what personal thing am I supposed to tell Ginny?" Fish asked.

The other six looked at each other and then at Fish. "Fish, come on," Harry said; "it's not really that hard to think of something now is it?"

Fish thought for a second then looked up at them. "That's something only you and my sister know. I can't tell her."

"Don't your parents know?" James asked.

"My father started calling me Fish because he's always drunk and he doesn't know better and my mother forgot my real name after her stroke seven years ago."

"So then it's really personal. You care about Ginny though and she knows your name is personal for you and if you tell her she'll know she means something to you."

"And if it doesn't, and this was really the end for us, it's going to be all over the papers with whatever Harry did that day."

"I don't think Ginny would spread your sad name all over the papers. She's not evil. You've been dating her; you should know she's not as cruel as to just sell out your poor name to the papers," Harry reminded him.

"People can surprise you. Remember Ashley? We thought she was sane once you know."

"Yeah, I thought about her today when I was with the President."

"You were with the President of the U.S?" Fish asked. "Did you make him cry?"

"Yes," he said excitedly. He stopped. "But that's not the point. It's your relationship we're talking about and I was really happy about it so you're not breaking up. I don't like your slutty girlfriends."

"You didn't meet half of them."

"Better not say that. Ginny might walk in."

"That wasn't funny Harry."

"It was kind of funny actually. And if you want Ginny back this is what you have to do and I want you to want Ginny back. If she decides that your name isn't enough I'll obliviate her for you."

"Fine. I'll do it tomorrow at breakfast," Fish agreed.

"Why don't you do it right now?" James asked.

"Because I don't want to right now."

"But if you tell her now you could be making out by tomorrow and you can start doing your homework," Harry explained.

"Sirius did my homework for me," Fish said.

"Why?"

"Because I can't write an essay."

"Practice makes perfect."

"I don't like what school does to you Harry. You're so scholarly. When you teach on the streets you swear and yell at people. I haven't heard you swear at anyone."

"Because there are professors everywhere."

"You used to swear at Cameron."

"Since when have you been allowed to call him Cameron?"

"Since he's not around I feel I can call him whatever I want. Come on Harry. You can swear still right?"

"It's not funny Fish. I don't want to swear right now."

"Come on Harry. You know you do. What's stopping you? If you give me a swear word I'll go tell Ginny my name right now."

Harry sighed and thought for a second. "You're a bloody fucking German helmet, Fish now go tell Ginny your name and convince her you're not a gimp." He smiled. "Happy now?"

"Very. I'll go right now," Fish said, standing up.

"What's a gimp?" Sirius asked.

"Slang for a sex slave, particularly one dressed in black leather or such apparel of a sexual nature."

"Where did you hear that one?" Remus asked.

"I made it up in 1997. Along with a beautiful poem to remember the day." He started to follow Fish out of the room. "I once met a gay gimp, with a very big limp." He looked down at his cane. "Stupid cane. Reminds me of Gimp the limping gay pimp." Harry laughed as he followed Fish out of the door with Tim and Tom following behind.

James looked at Remus. "Did he ever mention meeting a pimp before now? How did he meet a pimp?"

\-\

Harry and the three headed back to the commons while Fish nervously fiddled with his hands. He had been ashamed of his name ever since he figured out what a name was and what that meant for him. He had proclaimed that he would never tell anyone what his name was after his sister had mocked him mercilessly about it. Then came Harry and Harry had to know everything, not because his friend had asked but because Fish thought that he deserved to know. He was his best friend and Harry hadn't made fun of his name but he feared someone else might. He knew just by common sense that his mother must have hated him from birth because of the name she'd dubbed him with.

They walked up to the dorms and Harry said the password and they all went in. The residents looked up at the doorway. "What?" Harry asked. He moved Fish forward. "Ginny, Fish has something he wants to talk to you about," Harry said.

"Fish, I don't—"

"It won't take long. I just want to talk. It'll only be a few minutes," Fish said shyly, which he never was.

"Alright."

"Can everyone else leave? It's kind of private," Fish asked.

"Of course we can. Come on. If I can make it up stairs with a cane I bet the rest of you can," Harry said, limping over to the staircase towards his room. The others sighed and followed him to his room.

Ginny stayed sitting on the couch and Fish came over to sit beside her. "Ginny," the door shut upstairs, "I'm really sorry for what I said. But, you know by now that I wouldn't sleep with just anyone, I'm not stupid. Would you please tell me what's wrong?"

"Fish, I knew you were a "lady's man" or whatever and that you had had a lot of girlfriends but I guess it never really hit me that you had slept with all of them. You're a bit experienced and I'm really not at all."

"But I'm not like that anymore. I am experienced but that's all in my past. I don't even think about any of those girls anymore. Ever since I met you I realized that, if I could just have you with me, I don't need anyone else. You're so much more special to me then any of them ever were or ever could be. You're special to me, you're real. Not fake like all the other girls I've dated. You mean something to me." Ginny blushed. "Do you want proof of how much you mean to me?"

"What kind of proof?" Ginny asked.

"There are only two people in this world who know my real name and that's my sister and Harry. My sister because she was born before me and she had to know, and Harry knows because I trust him with my life. So if I tell you it means that I trust you to keep a very deep and special secret for me. Can you do that?" Ginny nodded and smiled. "Alright, but you have to promise not to laugh at me or ever use this name in public, or at all in fact."

"Alright."

Fish sighed. "My birth name is… (drum roll please) Asabee Horis Hatch."

Ginny smiled holding back her laugh. "It's not that bad. Asabee is kind of cute."

"My sister told me my mother was in labor for so long she hated me when I was born so she named me after a horror story she made up herself about Horis Greed who was cute as a bee and was killed and hung from an acorn tree. Don't ask what the story was about, it's kind of graphic. But that's why I don't like it and that's why we will never announce this to anyone, ever."

"So I can't call you Asabee ever? Even when we're alone?" Ginny asked.

"You want to be alone with me now?" Fish asked.

"I forgave you before you told me your name. I'm sorry I was rude. I was just scared. Stupid huh?"

"Not really. I understand," Fish said, stroking her cheek and moving her hair behind her ear. He leaned in to kiss her but the door upstairs slammed open.

"Alright that's enough. We need to finish our homework," Hermione said, stomping down the stairs.

"You weren't listening were you?" Fish asked worriedly.

"No," she sighed disappointedly, "Harry was hogging the whole door."

Harry came down smiling. "I was excited." He glared at Hermione. "Very nice pushing down the boy with a cane."

"You're strong, you'll heal," she said plainly, sitting down with her work again.

"Let's hope so."

"Hey Harry, you should probably start thinking of when you're gonna start team practice," Ron said, as they all retook their seats around the commons with their homework.

"Oh yeah. Almost forgot. We'll start in two days. Give everyone enough time to be prepared for whatever I'll have planned for that time."

"What do you think we will be doing on the first day back."

"A lot of exercise. You know how many of us have spent the entire summer watching the television and the goings on of the war. I think everyone needs a bit of exercise to get them going again."

"Why don't we just start tomorrow? We can notify everyone in the common room right now."

"Because I have to start physical therapy with Madam Pomfrey tomorrow, for my leg."

"Oh, sorry."

"No problem. All works to my advantage. Can't have this stupid cane forever. I'll go insane if I never get to run or anything ever again. I'm actually starting to get used to the cane so that's not the horrible part anymore. Except I did almost fall down the stairs yesterday. That was exciting. Almost stepped on poor Prose, don't know what he was doing on the floor."

"You almost fell down the stairs?" Bonnie asked.

"The guards took care of it. They're very good at their job. They don't let me walk two inches without them taking three."

"You sound annoyed."

"Not really. I should start on that apology letter to Mr. Bush," Harry said, summoning a pad of paper and a quill with ink. Then it was silent.

\-\

After an afternoon of working on his Occlumency and meditation with Dumbledore he was off to Madam Pomfrey for his physical therapy before dinner. He walked into the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was working on getting a pain relief potion for a girl who had almost gotten her arm cut off. She looked to be hyperventilating. Harry walked over to her and sat down on a bed beside her.

"Hey," he said quietly. She looked over at him, her eyes widening in surprise. It was a first year. "How'd that happen?" he asked, motioning to her arm.

"Oh, um, stray hex in defense class."

"First year? What's my father teaching in his classes?"

"Actually it was a Slytherin who used the wrong jinx."

"You'd think they'd learn their lesson. Be happy you have Slytherins. I only have Malfoy and he tried to kill my girlfriend. I miss the other Slytherins," Harry sighed.

"Potter, stop scaring my patients," she said, handing the girl a potion, which she drank quickly and then stitching up her arm with her wand. She then gave her a dreamless sleep potion and closed the curtains around her bed. She turned to Harry. "How's the leg doing?"

"Fine I guess. I'm not really in pain or anything."

"Good. Are you're using your cane? Not running or jumping around or doing anything that might put too much pressure on it?" she asked, directing him to put his leg up on the bed she could look it over with her wand.

"No. I've been good. Using the cane, haven't been to any parties so no chances to jump up and down a lot."

"Good. No excess pressure?"

"No. I've been reading a lot. But Quidditch is coming up. I'll have the group running in two days around the pitch. I won't join them though. Sadly, and I'll have to live with their complaining about why I'm not joining them. But they'll have to live with it. I don't get to run so I'm going to live my workout through all of them."

"Good idea. Don't let your teammates pressure you. I know you enjoy running but it'll all turn out for the better in the end."

"Right."

"As for the actual Quidditch it shouldn't be too bad since you'll be up in the air. But be careful and don't be too forceful on your leg when you're going to accelerate or however you say it in Quidditch terms."

Harry laughed. "That's it? You're not going to tell me I should give up Quidditch this year?"

"Would you listen?"

"Guess not." Harry quieted while she looked over his knee with her wand.

"Alright, let's see how you walk on it," she said, standing up and stepping away.

Harry settled both feet on the floor and grabbed his cane to help him stand. Madam Pomfrey took his cane and told him to take a few steps so she could see how he walked without it and trying to narrow in on what was wrong.

"You think this'll help. The therapy?"

"It worked for people who've been shot in the leg and people who have been paralyzed. I'm sure it'll work on you."

"Who knows what sorts of spells have hit it though."

"I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I'll be able to run when my leg is healed right?" Harry asked, reaching for an empty bed.

"Depends on how well you do."

"Why wasn't it this hard to walk before? On Sober Day I felt just fine."

"Because it was healing well. Now you've damaged all the healing it had done during the summer and your muscles need to heal the leftover damage and the damage you caused yourself."

"Great."

Madam Pomfrey walked over and handed him his cane back. "I'm sure you'll do fine Harry. You heal easily. Maybe you'll get lucky."

Harry sighed. "If my quick healing was going to help me I'm sure it would have worked to my advantage a lot earlier."

\-\

The next day after breakfast the entire team gathered at the front of the pitch in their uniforms and their brooms.

"You'll all be starting off with two laps around the pitch. Unfortunately Madam Pomfrey said I'll only further damage my leg by running or walking without a cane so you'll all have to run without me. And just a warning, if one person complains or make some wise-arse remark about my cane and my not running I will give you a detention, with me, where you will run more laps. You'll be fulfilling my enjoyment in the sport by running for me. Does everyone understand?"

They all nodded and set their brooms down. Harry blew the whistle and they all started their laps. As Harry made himself comfortable on the ground, levering himself down with his cane, he heard one player mumble, "of course they make him head boy so he can make us suffer more."

"You don't sound like you're enjoying your running, Dean. Running is a gift, be thankful." He sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. "God, how I wish I was lucky enough to obtain that gift," he mumbled to himself, closing his eyes.

When the team was finished with their run Harry pulled himself up with his cane and then grabbed his Firebolt. He handed his cane to his guard, who sunk slightly at the weight and stared at Harry strangely as the boy got onto his broom. He pushed off the ground with his good leg, making himself slightly unbalanced as he lifted into the air but then straightened himself out again. He flew over to the team and told them what they would be doing for the next few hours of practice. "We started late this year, which is why I only gave you two laps. But we're going to have long practices to make up for the days we didn't start. Sorry." He flew up toward the pitch and everyone else flew off.


	37. The Mysterious Ashley Story

AN: This chapter may not seem important and almost like one of those chapters (which I do end up writing, I admit) where I introduce something and then never bring it up again, but Ashley is an important character and has a lot to do with the pressure on Harry's sanity and overall psyche in later chapters. Don't ignore Ashley. She is important.

Also, this is the beginning to a sequence of chapters that seem to be my favorites, considering how quickly, easily and eagerly I got through editing and re-reading them. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Chapter 36

The Mysterious Ashley Story

**A five year old Harry sat in the center of a white room dressed in all black on a medium sized black square. His eyes searched the white walls to search for some type of imperfection. The walls were starting to get to him; they were just too white. They had no lines, no edges, no nothing; nothing but white. It bore into his eyes like a strange white light. He had been staring at them for an hour now.**

**He remembered what his Aunt had said about the white light you saw when you died. He didn't think he was dying right at this moment but maybe if he reached for the light… **_**But what about God's plans?**_** Harry asked himself. **

_**He changed his plans,**_** his mind told him, **_**and he wants you to go to the light.**_

**Harry moved onto his hands and knees in the black square, and then glanced at the wall he knew was a mirror out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't see it, but he knew they were there. They were always watching. **

**He reached his hand out of the box and touched the white floor with two fingers. Then came the great shock that suddenly ran through his veins and he quickly pulled away to make it stop. He looked at his fingers to make sure they were okay. It wasn't that bad, they were just a little red, but his body felt like it had the chills and he couldn't stop shaking for a few seconds. He looked at the white floor again. **_**When did the color white decide to hurt me?**_** Harry asked himself as he pulled his sleeves down over his palms. He leaned forward toward the floor and looked over, leaning over the line that defined the area of the square. Nothing happened. He leaned over farther and without noticing shifted his hand over the line and into the white area. Then he felt the great shock run through him again like shivers that wouldn't stop no matter how warm it became. He fell over in pain, into the white zone and more pain spread through his skin, raising the hairs on his arms and at his neck and turning all skin that touched the floor a soft shade of red. **

**He forced himself to, shakily, to move back into the box and the shock waves left his skin but the shivers stayed as he curled himself into a ball to make sure he stayed inside the black at all times. He wasn't stupid. White was bad for him. The color white would shock him and hurt him and made his skin shiver till pain. The black clothes and this black square were obviously keeping him safe. It was white's rival. It would keep him safe. This was part of God's testing him. God was trying to show him the difference between good and evil. White would cause him pain and shivers, black would cling to him and keep him safe from harm. **

**It was when his shivers finally stopped and he was still curled up in his safe black cocoon that he heard the voices behind the wall. "**_**Alright, you can take him out now**_**," the voice said, echoing in the walls like crystal. **

**Then a wall split in two and two men in white coats walked in and reached for him. "It's time to leave Harry!" **

"**It's St. Jimmy now you arse-hole." **

"**Harry, come with me," the man said, grabbing Harry's arm and trying to pull him along. **

"**NO! THE WHITE FLOOR WILL HURT ME! LET GO!" Harry screamed at the man, trying his hardest to stay within the black perimeter. **

"**Harry, come on. We've turned the shock units off. It's safe." **

"**God's warning me. You're the enemy! You're in all white. You're trying to hurt me!" Harry screamed hysterically at the man, shoving him away and pulling at the grip the man had on his arm. **

"**Harry, stop acting. We know it's not working." **

"**Stop pulling. You're trying to take me away from God! He won't let you," Harry said. He brought his leg around and kicked the man in his shin. The man fell to the ground and Harry shoved the heel of his foot into his crotch. He rolled onto his side clutching himself while Harry sat back down in his square watching the man in pain and wondering where he had learned to do that. **

**The other doctors gathered around and two pulled the hurt doctor out of the room and the others stared curiously at young Harry as he watched them closely beneath his dark lashes. The men looked to each other, and then took their chances, grabbing Harry all at once, ignoring his screams of protest. **

**\-\**

"**So they changed your uniform personally for you?" Fish asked, as they walked down Privet Drive discussing Harry's first year at school. **

"**Yeah, apparently they don't like when I scream. But they said it was only temporary and as soon as I get over this I'll have to wear my normal uniform when required. I've decided that I'll just wear a black outfit underneath my normal uniform, that way the white clothes won't be able to come in contact with my skin." **

"**Good plan St. Jimmy." **

"**I thought so too." **

"**So it's just the clothes then?" **

"**Well if I'm surrounded by black all the time, as in my clothing, then the white won't be able to hurt me." **

"**Oh," Fish said. His leader was a little insane but his conscious told him that this was right. Harry sat in the front seat of the abandoned car they had left on the playground for themselves after they hijacked it. Fish sat down on the grass at Harry's feet and stared up at him. "St. Jimmy? When are you going to get more followers? I found these two really cool guys. They're smart like you. They know all this weird math and technology crap. They're twins to." **

"**Fish, are you sure about this follower and leader stuff? I mean, I just want a friend." **

"**Well I can be both if you want," Fish said, kneeling now so he didn't look up so far. "I can be your friend and a follower." **

"**But why the followers? God never mentioned followers in his message." **

"**Well he just forgot. Trust me, this is right. I feel it." **

**Harry smiled and stroked Fish's blond hair between his fingers. Fish closed his eyes till Harry stopped. "So, who are these twins you mentioned?" **

**\-\**

"**Hi St. Jimmy," Ashley smiled seductively, fluttering her eyelashes. She blushed and ran a hand through her long brown hair. **

"**Hey Ash," Harry replied, ignorant of her flirting nature toward him as he looked through a stack of videos in Fish's room. **

**Bonnie was sitting at the end of Fish's bed glaring at Ash while Fish lay horizontally across the bed watching his leader slowly search for something to watch. Tim and Tom were sitting on the floor, silently mocking Ash by overly batting their eyelashes at each other and running their hands through their own shorter hair. **

**Ashley glared at them evilly. **

**They both turned to each other with wide eyes and their hands over their mouths like daunted ladies. **

"**So St. Jimmy—"**

"**Hold on Ash. Fish, what is Spice World doing in your room?" **

"**Um, it's my sisters. She must have left it in here as a joke," Fish said, his eyes shifting. **

"**Right," Harry drawled with a smile, as he knew Fish was lying. **

"**St. Jimmy," Ash said again. **

"**What is it Ash?" **

"**I have a new movie we could all watch." **

"**What about?" **

"**Britney Spears. She's this cool new singer."**

"**Singers don't have movies, they have music videos," Harry said. **

"**Whatever. It's good anyway, I'm sure you'll like it. You're such a good judge of music," she smiled, reaching out to touch his leg while he was distracted. Before she made contact a pillow was thrown at her making her scream in surprise. She glared at Fish as she knew it was him from the large smile. **

"**I'm so sorry Ash. It slipped right out of my hand."**

"**Sure, you asshole," she mumbled. **

"**Don't insult Fish, Ashley. He's higher rank than you are," Harry said. **

"**I'm sorry St. Jimmy. I don't know what came over me," she smiled, making herself blush. **

"**Yeah, let's just watch this video of yours," Harry said, leaning back against the end of the bed beside Bonnie's legs. He leaned his head on her knees and ran his hand over her bare ankle. **

**Ashley took a deep breath to calm herself when she saw this and grabbed the tape from her small bag near the door. She put in the tape and pressed play and sat back beside Harry who remained oblivious as he was fiddling with Bonnie's ankle and listening to her giggle. This did not make Ashley happy but she turned back to her idol as the video started. **

"**You can turn it off now," Harry said, not impressed. **

"**But it's not even over yet." **

"**I don't appreciate sluts and the fact that we're being shoved into pop culture," Harry said, pressing the stop button on the VCR. "She was in bare midriff and was singing about very inappropriate things. If either of you girls starts dressing like her I'll fire you both." **

"**Don't worry St. Jimmy, I have no desire to wander around in a low cut Catholic school girl uniform," Bonnie giggled, running her fingers over Harry's hair from his bangs to his ears. **

"**Well I think she's cool, and I like pop music," Ash fought. **

"**Well that's great, but you can listen to that in your own time. We listen to rock and punk and bands that want to express a meaning other than sex." **

"**Whatever," she sighed, taking the tape out of the VCR and putting it back in her bag. "You find something to watch in Fish's small selection then." **

"**It's not small. I have a whole bunch of videos." **

"**Yeah, none that are interesting. What's your friend doing with the Little Mermaid and Spice World huh? And you think Britney Spears is the slut?" **

"**Hey! Just because I watch half-naked girls in my own spare time does not mean I want to watch them with you. And for your information the Spice Girls are awesome and Britney Spears sucks because we do not listen to American pop singers, it's a disgrace to our country. Not that you would understand that you're a disgrace to the entire group." **

"**Fish that's enough. We all know the Spice Girls are awesome, you don't have to defend their honor," Harry smiled. **

"**You bet your arse they are. I may be either but I know what's hot. Britney Spears has nothing on them. Plus, there's five of them and only one of her." **

"**Well Britney is blond!" **

"**The Spice Girls have Baby Spice and her favorite color is blue and her clothes aren't nearly as slutty as your friend Britney."**

"**Well Britney is prettier then her." **

"**Britney is trailer trash who will end up with two ugly children and flashing herself to the press and marrying one of her ugly trashy back-up dancers with really bad facial hair that can't speak proper English!" Fish said, leaning forward to glare at her. **

**Tim and Tom cheered and clapped. **

**Ash fumed and gave a great sigh. "You guys suck. I'm going home," she said angrily, grabbing her bag and slipping on her shoes, leaving for her home and slamming the door behind her. **

"**See St. Jimmy, this is a prime example of why we shouldn't have added another girl. There's only room for one." **

**Harry didn't respond and remained silently staring at the door Ashley had slammed behind her, his expression ashamed. **

"**And by one you mean you want to get rid of Ash right? Not me?" **

"**That's the point I was getting at flower," Fish smiled. "We would never get rid of you. You are an important addition to the group; whereas Ash has nothing but horrible American singing to offer to the group." **

**Bonnie giggled as Fish stroked a lock of her hair and then moved away from her, so as to not anger St. Jimmy. Harry grabbed two videos from Fish's pile near the television set. "Alright, either The Little Mermaid or Spice World?" **

"**The Little Mermaid," they all recited, except Fish, who really couldn't choose. **

"**Right," Harry said putting the video into the VCR and pressing play. He sat back next to Bonnie and put his arm over her shoulders. **

**.**

**Two weeks later:**

**.**

"**St. Jimmy," Fish yelled from outside the house. No one was allowed to come up and knock to request his presence so they were left to resort to yelling, which they didn't mind at all. "Are you coming out?" **

"**What's wrong with St. Jimmy?" Ashley asked, walking up behind Fish. **

"**Nothing, he's just being held captive again," Fish said, turning around slightly. His eyes widened at the sight of Ashley. "Holy, fucking hell. What demon crawled up your arse and dressed you this morning?" he asked seriously. **

"**What?" **

"**You know St. Jimmy is going to freak if he sees you dressed like that," Fish said, eyeing the girl's belly shirt, red jeans, and the shiny glitter around her eyes. **

"**Why? My mother said I looked pretty." **

"**Your mother works for the ass fucking Americans Ashley! Is this Britney Spears' latest slut outfit?"**

"**She's not a slut. She's pretty and she has a great voice. Just because the rest of you listen to bad guitar playing and gay guys in tight pants who scream instead of sing doesn't mean I have to." **

**Fish's mouth hung open in a look of pure horror. He turned back to the house. "ST. JIMMY!"**

**\-\**

**Harry lay on the floor in the ballroom, his head resting in Bonnie's lap as she ran her fingers through his hair. Fish was fighting off Tim and Tom with their fake, practice swords by the window so they had better lighting. **

"**Pet, where do you buy your shoes?" Harry asked, staring at her rubber pink sandals. **

"**I can't tell you, remember?" **

"**You don't know do you?" **

"**My grandmama bought them for me. How do you do that?" **

"**It's my job to know when you're all lying to me pet. I'm getting good practice out of asking you about your shoes," Harry smiled. **

**Bonnie glared down at him but continued to play lovingly with his hair. **

**The door opened across the room and the butler walked in escorting Ashley behind him. "Ms. **_**Ash**_**," he announced, putting emphasis on the nickname like he did everyone's. He still thought them funny. **

**Ashley walked into the room wearing a completely white, fashionable dress, white tights, and new white flats. Bonnie looked a little envious but then looked down at Harry and smiled. **

"**Are we being a ghost today Ash?" Fish laughed, getting himself whacked with Tom's plastic sword. He fought back, now distracted from Ashley. **

**Ashley went over to Harry. **

"**Hey Ash," he greeted tentatively, eyeing the white she had draped herself in. "Now everyone knows I don't like rules but I have to enforce the dress code. You know white freaks me out," Harry said, sitting up from Bonnie's lap. **

"**I know. That's why I wore it." **

"**You wanted to freak me out?" Harry questioned. **

**Ashley looked down at the floor and her eyes watered and she gave a small sob. **

"**Ash?" **

"**I love you St. Jimmy. But I know you don't feel the same way. Why don't you love me?" she sobbed. She slowly pulled a gun out of her pocket and lifted it up to face him. Bonnie screamed and wrapped her arms around Harry's shoulders. "Get the hell off of him you bitch!" Ashley yelled at her. **

**Harry pushed Bonnie gently away from him and stood up, to look Ashley in the eye. **

**Fish and the twins watched with wide-eyes at what was going on before them. They never expected anyone to ever go crazy on St. Jimmy. He was their leader. It just wouldn't do well for anyone to try and fight, or in this case kill, the person who was trying to save you. Apparently Ashley wasn't patient enough for her save. **

**Harry eyed Ashley carefully. "Ash? Is that gun loaded?" **

"**St. Jimmy, I wanted to be with you so much. I thought we were meant to be together. But you just wouldn't let me in. I could have been the one for you." **

"**Ash, you hardly know me." **

"**I tried to be with you and bond with you but you wouldn't come to me." **

"**Ashley, what are you saying?" **

**Ashley lifted the gun and pointed it at him. "If I can't have you, no one should," she cried, wiping her empty hand under her eyes. **

"**Ashley, you don't want to do this. You're not thinking straight. Where did you get that gun?" **

"**My father. Since you don't trust me with one yet." **

"**And for good reason. You're trying to kill me." **

"**You want to visit God don't you?" she asked hysterically. **

"**Ash, please put the gun down. You don't mean to do this. This isn't going to help anyone." **

"**It'll help me. This is the only way I can think of where I won't have to live without you." **

"**You don't have to live without me, I'm right here." **

"**But I can't have you! Now, hold still so I can aim. I wasn't **_**trained**_** at this like everyone **_**else.**_**" She took her aim and when she shot Fish came over to step in front of Harry but Harry pulled them both to the floor to get out of range. **

**The sound of the gun shooting off alerted the other members of the house hold. Cameron ran in and seeing Ashley about to aim again the two men Cameron was talking with quickly took hold of the situation and grabbed the little girl and the gun out of her fingers as she pulled the trigger again. The shot hit the wall and the one man held Ashley tightly, holding her arms down as she tried to get away and the other man emptied the gun of the bullets and put them into his pocket. **

**The first man looked down at Ashley and Cameron came over to kneel in front of her. "Ashley, what were you doing? That gun was loaded." **

"**Me and Harry were going to be together in heaven. I had to kill him first." Cameron looked over at Harry as the young boy pulled him and his friend off the floor. The boy had such an alluring grip on people and he probably never noticed, maybe he did now. He couldn't help the pull he had on people, but who knew it would get a nine year old girl to try and shoot him and then plan to kill herself afterward. He turned back to Ashley. "Ashley, this was a planned murder. You're going to get in a lot of trouble. Do you know what kind of trouble you're going to be in?" **

**Ashley turned her eyes to Harry but Fish stepped in front of him to block her view. "I love you St. Jimmy," she said quietly. **

"**Alright, let's get her out of here and call the police over," Cameron said. The two men took her into the other room and Cameron went over the others. "Are you all okay?" **

"**I will forever hate Americans," Harry said. "Is she going to be okay? Is she, like, completely gone in the head or what?" **

"**I don't know. But I'm sure the police will want to ask you some questions. Can you tell me what happened?" **

"**We were just hanging out and she came in and pulled out a gun. She told me that if she couldn't have me then no one could and then Fish came over to try to protect me and I pulled him down to the floor just as she shot at us. Then you came in." **

"**Did you teach her how to use a gun Harry? Cause I know you own one."**

**Harry lowered his eyes, embarrassed to know that Bonnie's father knew he owned a gun. "I hadn't gained her trust as of yet so I haven't given her any weapons." **

"**That's good. So where did she get the gun?" **

"**She said she got it from her father. She was angry that I didn't trust her with one."**

"**Okay. You'll have to tell the police this to okay?" **

"**Do I have to talk to them? You know how I am with authority," Harry said shyly. **

"**I'll talk to them," Fish offered. "I saw the whole thing." **

"**Alright—"**

**He was cut off by another gun shot in the room and they all looked toward the door to see Ashley smiling with the gun in her hand. Two police men came over quickly and carefully tackled her to the floor. **

"**I love you St. Jimmy," she said as the police cuffed her behind the back and pulled her from the room. Then Bonnie screamed. **

"**Bonnie what—" She was pointing at Harry with her hand over her mouth. **

**They all looked at Harry and Harry looked down at his shoulder where blood was soaking through his black T-shirt. He pressed his fingers to the blood and held it out to look at the deep red blood that dripped off his fingers. **

"**Oh lord. Harry, come on. We have to get you fixed up," Cameron said, reaching out for him to move in front of him so they could leave because he knew grabbing Harry would only make him yell. **

"**Why? I'm not hurt." **

"**Harry you've been shot," Cameron exclaimed. **

"**I don't feel any pain." **

"**Come on St. Jimmy," Bonnie said, taking his other wrist and pulling him along. "We'll get you all patched up and then we'll file for a restraining order. Who knows what that girl will be sentenced." **

**Harry followed her willingly and everyone else came along after. **

**Cameron called for his wife as he sat Harry down in the small hospital wing. Because of his daughters constant chemistry experiments in the house he found it necessary. It had only two beds in it and it was cozier than other rooms because Bonnie said the white would infect her and then Harry wouldn't come near her again. **

**While Harry sat on the bed with Fish sitting beside him, Cameron collected his wife and told her to fetch the healer. Harry was occupied from this talk as he was staring at the blood on his shirt and looking at it from his fingers. **

"**Harry, stop touching it. You're going to get an infection." **

"**It's so thick." **

**A healer ran in so fast he had to skid on the floor. He started whispering to Bonnie's father and mother very quickly, and Fish looked up at the words, "boy-who-lived." The man then quickly came up to them and kneeled in front of Harry. "Mr. Potter," he said.**

"**St. Jimmy," Harry corrected. **

"**St. Jimmy. I'm going to have to take care of that if you don't mind. So if you please look here at the tip of this stick," the man said, holding up his wand. "You three, would you also look this way." When they were all looking there was a small light and they passed out. **

\-\

Harry awoke to the comforting feel of soft kisses at his neck and his cheek. "Bonnie?" he questioned, his eyes still unopened as he welcomed the black behind his eyelids.

"Who else would it be?" the lips smiled, placing another kiss on his neck. Harry sighed contentedly. "Are you alright? You were shaking?"

Harry opened his eyes and looked up into Bonnie's eyes as she looked down at him worriedly. He stroked her hair behind her ear. "It was just a bad dream. I'm fine."

Bonnie lay on her side and looked at him. "You want to talk about it?"

Harry was silent for a second and closed his eyes taking a breath. He looked up at the white ceiling again. "Ashley," he said bluntly.

"Oh," she sighed, lying on her back. She stared up at the ceiling and it was silent for a second. She turned over again and stared at Harry as he blinked at the ceiling. "Harry—" She put her hand on his arm but Harry pulled away and climbed out of bed and headed toward the bathroom, closing the door.

Bonnie sighed and sat up in bed leaning back against the headboard, staring at the bathroom door. She turned to the clock to see that it was five a.m. The silence seemed to have lasted so much longer then that in her head. She climbed out of bed and grabbed some clothes before heading downstairs. She took the door to the Gryffindor common room. Only two first year girls were up finishing their homework so she headed up to the seventh year girl's dorms to brush her teeth and shower and get dressed.

She headed back to Harry's rooms and headed in to see if he had left the room. "Harry?" She noticed the bathroom door and walked over to knock quietly. "Harry, are you coming to breakfast?"

It was all quiet in the bathroom except for the sound of running water.

"Are you alright Harry?" she asked nervously.

"I'll see you at lunch Bonnie," he said quietly, through the door.

Bonnie sighed. "Alright." She then left the room with her book bag and purse and headed down to the Great Hall. She sat down at the table and set her bags down. She looked up to see them all staring at her. "What?"

"Where's Harry?" Fish asked.

"He's having a quiet breakdown in the bathroom," she said plainly.

"What for?"

"He had a nightmare."

Fish made a face at her for her to continue.

"About Ash."

Fish leaned back in his chair and his face went lax. "Oh." He looked down at his breakfast and then pushed it away.

"Who's Ash?" Ron asked.

"She tried to shoot Harry," Tim said.

"She was obsessed," Tom said.

"She went mental."

"Harry couldn't save her."

"He wasn't happy."

"This was his follower?" Hermione asked.

"Ashley was nine, obsessed with Britney Spears, and she wanted to marry Harry in heaven. So she tried to kill him," Bonnie said, sounding tired. "He's fine besides the times when he actually remembers. But at those times we just leave him to his own devices and he comes back at lunch. He's fine." She stared at her food before even taking a bite before sighing and setting her silverware down and pushing away her plate. "She should have died," she said bitterly.

Fish looked down into his pumpkin juice as he drank it as Bonnie played with her knife.

"I hated her. She used to dress like me."

"Let's not talk about it please. I hate remembering."

Bonnie set the knife down and sighed. She took out her wand and tapped her glass before quickly bringing it to her lips and downing the glass. "I'm going to class."

"We'll join you," Fish said quickly, shoving Tim and Tom to stand with him, each grabbing their bags. The others soon joined them, all heading to DADA besides Ginny who soon went to Transfiguration.

\-\

Meanwhile, Harry sat in the bathroom listening, hypnotized, to the sound of running water in the sink and the bathtub. He had his back to the bathtub and his hand dipped in the freezing cold water. The sound itself was calming but the cold water was keeping him from breaking down. When he was younger he always secretly enjoyed Ashley being one of his followers. She was weird, annoying, obsessive, and she tried to press her suggestions on him. And when he was alone with his friends, his close followers that were there when she was: Bonnie, Fish, Tim and Tom; he would pretend to feel the same way they did about her. Annoyed and cold toward all her opinions and such. But deep down the fact was that Harry enjoyed her. She was strange and weird and she was different to him. He remembered when he had interviewed her to join the group. They had been alone because he insisted that Fish not watch over his shoulder. He did that when interviewing Tim and he almost backed out.

Ashley had smiled sweetly at him, directly called him St. Jimmy and told him she was completely normal in the head. Harry had laughed and they had talked for two hours discussing her problems with her family and how she was once obsessed with My Little Pony stickers and had to have her stomach pumped of the sticky paper because she wanted to be filled with her obsession. She said she had gotten better but Harry found her so mad that he just had to keep her. He told her she was perfect for his group and she had been so very excited she had almost given him a hug. Then they went over the rules. Ashley seemed determined to do well and Harry was proud.

He had tried to save her, but he had never expected himself to be her next big obsession. And he had never expected her to go that far to be with him like she had her My Little Pony stickers. She had tried to kill him and though Harry could stand physical pain, like a bullet lodged deep into his arm, it was nothing to the pain of watching one of his followers be driven away to the hospital for help. Harry was ashamed that he couldn't help her. He had done so well with others, before and after, even if they left, but he couldn't save her.

After nine years the guilt of not saving her was still eating away at him. He hated it.

There was a knock on the door and then the familiar worried voice of Josh, "Harry? Are you alright in there?"

Harry gave no answer. He knew his voice may come out strained so he'd rather stay silent.

"Harry, why is the water running?" That was a different voice. His father was outside the door to. He should be in a class, teaching. Someone told them he was moping and brooding. Everyone but Ginny was in Defense, probably being tortured by Sirius's bad jokes.

He still refused to answer.

"Harry, Fish said you were moping. He sounded worried. And Bonnie sounded like she had something to drink for breakfast that you wouldn't approve of. And Ron and Hermione looked very confused so I'm guessing the source of your brooding has something to do with followers or something that upset you before you met them. Also Fish has started brooding because your future wife looks like she wants to hurt someone and yet he sat down right next to her. I think he's very worried about you. Obviously, this has happened before because Bonnie also seems annoyed—"

He was cut off when the door unlocked and then swung open fiercely. "Alright, it's none of your business. If I want to brood, I'm going to do so. If I want to whine and slowly sink myself into a deep depression because of some girl I'm going to do it. And if Bonnie wants to drink herself into a stupor again because she's jealous of a girl who tried to _shoot_ me than tell her to go right ahead. And Fish is fine he's just over dramatic." He slammed the door shut again and fell back against the bathtub, throwing his hand back into the water.

Both men outside looked at each other.

"Harry this sounds serious," Josh said. "Why would Bonnie drink herself into a drunken stupor over a girl who tried to shoot you?"

"Why is she jealous?" James asked.

"Who shot you?"

Harry groaned and laid down on the floor, "God, shut up. I don't want to talk about it. I just want to sulk in my misery. So go away!" Harry yelled.

"Harry if you don't come out of the bathroom right now I will get your mother over here."

"Go ahead. I'll be drowning in the bathtub by time she gets here. Oooh," Harry replied through the door.

"Is he kidding?" James asked.

"I'm not sure," Josh whispered. "Harry, was that a joke? You're worrying us now. Nothing can be that bad that you want to kill yourself. Who was Ashley; maybe if you tell us we can help."

Harry lay quietly on the floor, his hand dipped back in the cold water. He thought it over. What good is a therapist if I'm not going to use him? Harry thought. So he decided. He got up, opened the door and stood to the side. "If you want to talk we have to do it in the bathroom," he said strictly.

"Okay," Josh agreed, used to his patients strange suggestions. He walked in and James followed him.

"Why do you have your hand in the tub?" James asked after Harry had sat down on the floor.

"Because it's calming. I enjoy the cold."

"What's going on Harry? Do you do this often?" Josh asked.

"Only when I think about her. I had a dream, I remembered her, the day she shot me, and everything."

"Who's her?" James asked.

"Ashley. She was one of my followers. She had an obsessive personality. Her new obsession had become me. She wanted to kill me so that when she killed herself we would both end up in heaven and we would get married. I tried to talk her out of it but she shot me in the shoulder," Harry said, fingering the place where he had found blood that day. "Then the cops took her away and Cameron's healer knocked me unconscious with a spell so he could heal me. I later learned that they had taken Ashley away and her parents agreed to get her mental help."

"Well that's good isn't it?" Josh asked.

"I added her to my group to save her. Not to send her to the stupid doctors who will shove pills down her throat and force her into group therapy with other psychotics who probably didn't wash their hands."

"Harry you can't save everyone," Josh said.

"I've saved everyone else. Do you know how many followers I have? They're all doing fine. I just couldn't save her. And she was obsessed with me. With me? Why is it so hard to save someone who's obsessed with you? She would have done anything I said. I wouldn't know it's not like I ever told her to stop being obsessed with Britney, her annoying disposition is what made me enjoy her company. That's why Bonnie's unhappy at the moment. She knew I was so close to giving in to Ashley just to save her. Then I might be getting married to her instead. Because Bonnie can stare from afar and not end up shooting me. Ashley couldn't."

"You actually considered taking the mental girl instead of Bonnie?" Josh asked. "I thought you asked God for her. She must mean more than Ashley."

"Of course she does. She means the world to me. But when I was nine I was stupid and I just wanted to save her from the wicked doctors. Of course I know better now. I love Bonnie like no one else; she doesn't understand that, she's still jealous of any girl who stares at me just like I am with any guy who stares at her. And obviously Ashley would have gotten tired of me. She hardly knew me then. Once she found out how completely insane I am she would have went to find a new obsession I had no control over."

"You seem to be telling yourself what I would have told you. Why are you having such a problem with this if you understand it?"

"Because," he whined, lowering his head so his hair hung in his eyes, looking much longer then it had yesterday, "I have a problem and I feel as though I have to save everyone."

"People can depend on themselves Harry."

"What do you think I tell people? I don't spend every moment with all my followers. I force them to help themselves. And if they can't they have me or someone close by to go to. We're like family. Sadly, I was the only one who could stand Ashley and I wasn't able to handle it."

"Where is Ashley now? Do you know or did you not want to know?" Josh asked.

"Well, I have a restraining order against her. Cameron convinced me to get one when Ashley left her center a few months after she went in. But last I heard of her she was put in a mental institution somewhere. They told me it was best not to visit her or send her any letters or anything. But she's still part of the group. I never kicked her out. Just because she was sick was no reason to rip her contract."

"When was the last you heard from her?" Josh asked.

"Well when I was nine and she was being taken away. But the last I heard about her was from one of the doctors who contacted Cameron per my request. They said they confiscated some things from her that might remind her of me and they had her on a few drugs that might help her. I never heard if they did or not and I don't know if she's even still there."

"You're not scared that she might have left the institute and might come looking for you?"

"I got the restraining order renewed last year," Harry said. "I'm not scared of her, I just don't want anything to come between me and Bonnie and I don't want her to relapse if she is out and doing better."

"But you still get upset when you think about her?" Josh asked.

"I think it just hits me hard and I need to think it over for a little while. I usually finish brooding by lunch."

"How many times does this usually happen?"

"I don't know. Not often. It didn't happen at all last year or the year before that. Over the summer I remembered her. The summer after I met Sirius."

"So you don't really think about her a lot?"

"I try not to."

"Well good. I think you should go to lunch and tell your fiancé that you love her. It might make her feel better."

"That's all the advice you can give to me?" Harry asked.

"Well you seem to have it pretty much under control. Unless you want me to prescribe you some meds for trying to sink yourself into depression there's not much I can do for you."

"I'd rather not. I'm just going to lie here for a little while before I head down. Do you know if Dumbledore wants me to do anything today?"

"He's not here so I'm guessing that means you're going to class right?" James asked.

Harry nodded. "Who's teaching your classes if you're here?" Harry asked.

"Remus. Did you think I would leave it to Sirius? He hardly paid attention in class; I doubt he could teach one."

Harry smiled. "Well you should probably get back anyway right?"

"Are you going to leave the bathroom sometime today?" Josh asked.

"In a little while," Harry said.

"Alright. But soon, because you still need to eat you know," James said, standing up from the floor. He messed Harry's hair and headed out of the bathroom with Josh following behind him.

When they left the room Harry stood and closed the door before removing his shoes and socks and returning to the tub. It seemed to have gotten colder, the water, while he had been sitting with his hand in it. It was normal for water to warm when it sat for a certain amount of time but the longer Harry sat with his hand in the water the colder it got, maybe because he wished it. It seemed to have formed a thin layer of ice over the water.

It looked oddly tempting; though he knew the water was now below zero and would be like lying in snow with no clothes on. He stepped in, cracking the ice, and quickly took on the satisfying coldness and climbed the rest of the way into the tub and sat down in the icy water. He slowly leaned back until the ice cracked under his head and he slowly closed his eyes as he slipped under the water.

**\-\**

**Harry stared at the letter in his hands written by one of Ashley's doctors. It was written to Cameron because he knew they wouldn't have sent it if they knew it was him who wanted to know about her. It said she was doing better but it was best if the boy they called St. Jimmy never visited again as she may have a relapse and try to kill herself. It was depressing to think that he had not only, not saved her, but he also made her want to kill herself. He felt like walking back in front of those cars again. **

**With the letter was an enclosed photo of Ashley with two young girls standing next to her. She looked happy with them. The wall behind them was covered with photos. On closer inspection he saw that many of them had his face and some of them were pasted next to photos of Ashley. There was a man next to the wall removing some of the photos. **

"**Harry," Cameron said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't dwell on it. She was sick and now she's getting the help she needs. It's not your fault. You couldn't save her and there's nothing wrong with that." **

**Harry just nodded, continuing to stare at the brown hair, brown eyed girl in the photo. **


	38. The Cancer

AN: I got one review from, I don't know, five chapters. I'm not saying you have to but a little reassurance would be much appreciated. Even if your review read, "Hey, I read this. Liked." Or just "liked."

Thanks to dude, who I couldn't reply to. I'm sorry for the grammar problems. I always hate reading them to. I'll try to go back and fix them when I get the time. I'm really glad you still like the story though and thank you for reviewing.

Chapter 37

The Cancer

"Harry, are you still in there? We're doing homework downstairs with some snacks and butterbeer if you want to join us." She waited patiently for an answer. It was completely silent without the sounds of running water or even breathing. "Harr—y."

She took a quick step back as Harry stood in the open doorway, dripping from head to toe.

"Harry, why are you and your clothes all wet?" Bonnie asked, touching his jacket. "And why are you so cold? You're going to catch your death of cold," Bonnie said quickly taking out her wand and a waving a drying charm over him. "What were you doing in there? You know you scared the crap out of me. Why do you have to be so over-dramatic? You know you scare Fish when you get in one of your moods. And me to for that matter. I won't even bother to tell you what I drank at breakfast this morning but it sure wasn't pumpkin juice. But what do you care, you're sitting up here sulking, freezing yourself in water for Merlin knows what reason…"

As she continued to complain to him Harry just stood there smiling at her contentedly. She was dressed in another one of her nightly outfits, a casual knee length black dress, Mary-Janes and her large black hat. God only knows why she wore these things while studying but it was something Harry loved about her.

"Harry, are you even listening to me?" Bonnie asked. She noticed Harry staring and smiling at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Harry just smiled more and took a step toward her. "You look pretty," he said quietly.

Bonnie blushed. "Are you just saying that to get out of the conversation because we—"

Harry gently removed her hat and looked down at her and into her eyes, still smiling. He leaned down slowly and gently caught her lips in a sensual kiss. "I miss you," Harry mumbled against her lips, brushing his lips across hers without form.

"I haven't gone anywhere," Bonnie mumbled, lack of breath keeping her voice quiet as Harry ran his fingers over her curls while his other hand still held her hat.

"We don't spend time together anymore. We sleep in the same bed at night; see each other at meals…." He pulled away and looked her in the eye. "I'm sorry I avoided you today. I just needed time to think. To get things back in order." He stroked the side of his fingers over her still blushing cheek. "I'm sorry for scaring you," he apologized.

"Go tell that to Fish."

Harry ignored the comment. "But I'm not at all pleased that you were drinking at breakfast."

"It was a small glass. And…I know you miss her or whatever, but _I_ really don't."

"I know pet. But you don't drink. It's no reason to resort to alcohol."

Bonnie lowered her head. "I'm sorry."

Harry kissed her forehead. "Me too." He gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders and brought her close against his chest. Bonnie wrapped her arms tightly around Harry's waist and nuzzled into his chest, basking in the sudden closeness as Harry laid his cheek on her hair.

A couple minutes later Harry lifted his head and kissed Bonnie's hair. "You wanna go downstairs now?"

"Why?" Bonnie asked, nuzzling closer.

"To do your homework?" Harry asked.

"In a few minutes," Bonnie said, tightening her grip around his waist.

"Okay," Harry agreed, tightening his arms as well, taking pleasure in how his fiancé sought his comfort.

After a few more moments of standing there holding each other Harry pulled away and Bonnie was forced to do the same. Harry kissed her forehead and smiled. "I haven't eaten all day. Let's go enjoy some snacks shall we?" Harry asked, taking her hand. Bonnie nodded and grabbed her bag off the floor near the door before following him down stairs.

Fish, Tim, and Tom stood quickly as Harry entered the room and made his way downstairs. "St. Jimmy? Are you alright?" Fish asked quickly, his homework hanging off his fingers.

"I'm fine Fish. I was just having a thinking day. Now who's holding the food? For once I'm starving," Harry announced, sitting in front of the fire with Bonnie who quickly took out her books before grabbing her hat back from Harry and placing it on her head.

Harry turned to her. "Why must you wear a hat while you do homework?"

"Because my writing looks better in the dark and my hat happens to shadow the parchment. Also, I think better when I'm dressed nice." She took out her parchment and opened her books and started on her essay for Transfiguration as Harry took the food that Ron shoved toward him.

"Don't you have any homework from Dumbledore Harry?" Hermione asked.

"No, he hasn't given much homework lately. We're working on legillimancy and at the moment your minds are all very boring."

"Harry, that's so rude," Ginny said, making sure her eyes did not come in contact with his.

"Well I must get my practice in somehow. Dumbledore's mind is quite hard to get through so I have to work on people who do not have any walls up. Like Fish… and Ron. Do you both find your homework so boring that you must think such improper things?" Harry asked, before dodging the paper ball Ron threw at his head. The second one hit straight into the side of his head.

The group grew quiet for a moment as the group wrote their sentences and Harry started on his dinner. There was a quiet tap at the window and Harry looked up to see Hedwig with a small note. He quickly went over and let her in. She perched on her arm as she nipped at his finger and he took the letter. Harry left but returned to her with a bite of his dinner and she ate before leaving back to the Owlery. Harry sat back down again and looked at the formal lettering.

"Who's it from?" Bonnie asked, leaning over his shoulder.

Harry didn't answer as he opened the letter from its seal.

_**.**_

_**To Sir Harry James Potter, also known as Sir St. Jimmy, **_

_**It has come to our attention Sir that you were formally a student at our school; you and your new fiancé Miss Bonnevilla McNeal, alias, Pet. **_

_**I have recently been appointed the new president of the projects here at Victoria's School for the Gifted and when I heard about your knighting ceremony I double checked with the professors as I knew I had heard you often discussed in the hallways when speaking of the past.**_

_**Your former teachers have brought it to my attention that many things had been confiscated from you and the girl that really should not have been. I am terribly sorry for how long the wait has been that we have been holding your things captive and I give you my profound apologies about the inconvenience of our holding your things. **_

_**Unfortunately we have not gathered them all yet as one of our older professors seems quite reluctant to give up what he explained to us as a prized possession he captured from you one year. I am at the moment trying to force him to give it up and I hope to send you all your things by morning with or without the last item, which I promise to send to you at one point in time. **_

_**President, Headmaster of Victoria's School for the Gifted, **_

**Mister William Trouse**

_**Mister William Trouse**_

.

Harry chewed on his forefinger as he read through the letter, his eyebrows etched together in utter confusion.

Apparently he read too slowly for Bonnie and she became impatient. "Well, who is it from?"

"Mister Trouse. He's the… he's the new _Headmaster_ at Victoria's."

"The school of horror and human-animal testing?" she questioned. "You're still in contact with them?"

"I cannot recall sending them a letter. The _headmaster_ is new and since I was knighted he thought it prudent to contact me and tell me they plan to send us the things they confiscated from us as students."

"What type of things?" Bonnie asked curiously and suspiciously.

Harry looked at her. "I'm not sure."

"What kinds of things were confiscated?" Ron asked.

"I can't remember. But apparently one of my older professors is holding something hostage."

/-

The next morning everyone was gathered at breakfast. Josh had come over to Harry to make sure he was alright and Harry said he was so Josh left him alone. Dumbledore wasn't going anywhere today so he would be having classes with him today.

Sometime in the middle of lunch when the owls began distributing mail to the other students two owls flew over toward Bonnie and Harry with two large brown boxes tied with string. When they landed in front of them Harry and Bonnie untied them quickly, as interested as the people around them to see what was inside. Harry opened his first.

"I was a strange child," Harry said, looking into the box. He reached in and pulled out a Britney Spears Barbie doll. Her hair was shaved off, her eyes were punctured out by something, her fingers and feet were cut off and her head was hanging to the side by a small piece of plastic. She was wearing all white with a large X marked across her body with what looked like paint.

"You had a Barbie Doll Harry?" Ron asked.

"One of my teachers gave it to me as a joke and then when I started mutilating it they took it away."

"Why is there an X across her body?" Ron asked.

"Because it was indecent, smutty, and provocative. See, her clothes are taped and glued to her body because Bonnie informed me that you could change her clothes."

"You were afraid of seeing a naked Barbie Doll?" Hermione asked.

"I was nine and the school had gotten the sex talk a week before. I'm very conservative if you hadn't noticed." He reached into the box again and pulled out a fashion magazine.

"Harry, you don't like fashion," Bonnie pointed out.

Harry opened the magazine to show them how he had etched out all the models eyes and used a sharpie to give them bigger bodies and color all their clothes black.

"Harry, did the teachers ever tell you that you had serious problems?" Hermione asked, taking the magazine and looking over it carefully.

Harry glared at her and took out the next item. It was a Rubix cube. "Ah, look Bonnie. Remember how we used to do them blindfolded. Bonnie and I hold the world record. At least I think we still do. But then we also did it blindfolded."

"Is there anything else in there?" Bonnie asked.

"There's a Sharpie marker and this thing," Harry said, pulling out an envelope. There was a letter inside. As he pulled it out a small square of white tile fell out onto the table. Harry looked at the letter. The note read: "Your old professor said that this is the piece of white tile that was in the study room during the Black& White session. He said it's important because it was the only thing that ever kept you behaved. I'm not sure what you ever did to him as no one would say but he started crying when I took it away from him. If you know why I would appreciate you telling me so I could get him some help. I am very sorry for the testing we had put you through and we hope you have not gone through any psychological problems because of it."

Harry stared at the white tile for a few seconds remembering the dream he had the night before. He scooped up the tile with the envelope and stuffed the letter in with it returning his things to the box. "Nothing of any importance," he said, closing it. He turned to Bonnie. "What's in yours?"

Bonnie smiled and opened her box. "A rubix cube," she said, setting it on the table. She grabbed some magazines but then shoved them back into the box saying it was nothing but Harry grabbed them.

"Come on you have to show us. What are they?" Harry asked, grabbing one of the magazines out of her hand despite her protest. He looked at it and then up at her. "Sweet heart," he said as Bonnie blushed, "how long have you been planning our wedding?"

"Shut up!" she said, taking the Bride Magazine from his hands and putting it back. "I was infatuated and in love with you and all I watched was romance films. Can you really blame me?"

"It's all right pet. Just because you're smitten doesn't make me love you any less," Harry said, kissing her cheek. "I am so desirable aren't I?" Harry said, laying his head on her shoulder as she rolled her eyes. He sat up again and scooted closer. "What else is in there? Your box is much more interesting than mine."

"They were just Bride Magazines," Bonnie said shuffling around in the box. "Oh, it's that book that the other girls got me when they were making fun of me," Bonnie smiled, pulling out "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret." "Then they finished the book, lived the book, and realized I was better off. It made me feel _so_ much better about myself."

Hermione grabbed the book. "My mum gave me this book when I turned 12. You never…"

"No."

"Lucky."

"Let's stop talking about girly things," Ron said, eyeing the book like it was going to curse him.

The girls laughed and Bonnie looked back in the box. "Then we have some other things. Pictures of Harry, little hearts, notebooks with Lady St. Jimmy written over and over until I found out Harry's last name in which it then became Bonnevilla Jackeline McNeal Price Potter," Bonnie said, flipping through the notebook.

"Aww, that's so cute," Ginny and Hermione said.

"Are you really going to keep all those names?" Harry asked.

"No, I must have been really bored or practicing my penmanship." She searched some more. "Ooh, a video tape. Labeled: the sex talk. Oh my god!" she started giggling. "We have to watch this."

"No we don't," Harry said, grabbing the tape.

"Yes we do. It was funny. You were political and going against your own morals."

"How old were you two when they gave this talk?" Ginny asked.

"Seven. First year Bonnie came to the school."

Harry put the tape in his own box and Bonnie looked back in hers. "The only thing left is some potions I made during the school year while I wasn't in class." She took one out; a purplish brown potion in a small jar with a cork. "This one is a bonding potion I made with some ingredients from home. This one," a small yellow test tube, "is a… skin eating disease." They all scooted away. "And this one," a blackish red chemical in a vile, "um…" Then it dawned on her and after her eyes had widened her mouth dropped and she screamed at the top of her lungs while still smiling brightly like a maniac. Harry covered his ears, as did the rest of the hall. Bonnie stood up and started jumping excitedly up and down until her voice ran out and she fainted on the floor the vile still clutched in her hand. Harry was over to her fast enough to make sure her head didn't hit the tile floor.

/-

Bonnie woke up in the hospital wing, there was someone gripping her hand and she could hear voices talking around her. One was Snape's and she noticed he sounded quite proud for some reason. He never had that bit of happiness in his voice, though it was still very small.

Her eyes flickered open. "Hey pet, you're awake," Harry greeted, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Are you feeling okay?"

"What happened?"

"Well they sent back your famous potion. You cured Cancer," Harry smiled.

"I did. I cured Cancer. I CURED CANCER!"

"Miss McNeal would you please calm down. You've screamed enough this morning," Madam Pomfrey said walking over to her.

"Where is my potion?"

"It's alright pet, it's right here," Harry said, holding it out for her. She took it quickly and held it close to her heart closing her eyes.

"It's so beautiful. I worked so hard on it," she sighed.

"It is a miracle. It got Snape to smile and say he was proud of one of his students."

"Aww, of me? I'm proud of me to," Bonnie said.

"I'm proud of you to," Harry smiled.

"Well I have to get up now. Have to find a hospital that will start distributing the potion to cancer patients. And it can be part of your new charity and we can sell it to patients for free. Or maybe for a pound or a dollar or something. Because I'd feel really bad trying to make money off of sick people when we don't need it."

"Oh goodie. More ways to get rid of money," Harry said excitedly.

Bonnie climbed out of bed. "Do you think we can cure everyone by the end of the weekend?"

"I'll get the followers out of bed early morning to work for me. I'm sure at least half of them have nothing to do this weekend." They walked out of the hospital wing hand in hand.

/-

The next weekend when Bonnie had tested the potion to perfection, they had made an appointment with an expensive hospital in London that would let them distribute the potion for free. And for Sir Harry Potter, The Savior, they would let him do anything.

"Aww, look how cute they are," Bonnie said, as they were escorted into the children's leukemia center of the hospital. Little boys and girls were lying asleep in their beds hooked to IV's.

"They are," said the nurse escorting them. "You know it's just wonderful what you're doing for them. A lot of these children's families would never be able to afford a cure, just some form of treatment."

"Well, they're our future. Can't have them all worrying about this disease when they should be thinking about their futures and how they're going to change the world," Harry said, sitting next to a blonde little boy. "He reminds me of Fish. Quick, give him the potion first," Harry said, excitedly. He was in disguise even though his guards were standing around him. His hair was longer, hanging in his eyes and over his ears so he had to keep moving it out of the way to see, it was a lighter shade of black instead of raven and he was wearing a pair of black jeans, brown Converse, a tee and a suit jacket with tails.

"Can we wake them up?" Bonnie asked. She was dressed in her normal formal outing outfit with a black Zac Posen dress.

"How do you need to administer the medicine?" the nurse said just as the doctor entered the room.

"Needle will make it work faster but then we'd have to go through all those needles so we can just feed it to them orally," Bonnie said, going over to the little boy that Harry was sitting beside. She took a potion vial from her purse and set it on a tray. She tapped the one vial and ten others popped up around it. She looked over at the children lying in their beds and counted them to make sure she had enough. She took the first vial and handed it to the doctor. "They just have to drink it."

"And all their parents have agreed to this?" the doctor asked, looking over the vial.

"Harry talked to them," Bonnie said, taking a vial to the nurse.

"Sir Potter, the Savior?" the doctor asked, surprised. "He's in my hospital?" he asked excitedly.

Bonnie smiled and pointed slowly over to Harry.

Even the nurse looked surprised as they looked over toward Harry who stood looking at them both curiously as he hadn't been listening and didn't know why people were staring at him.

Both nurse and doctor fell to the floor in a low bow.

"Please don't do that, you have potions to distribute. Follow Bonnie, I'm going to go see if anyone needs some cheering up," Harry said, leaving the room with all his guards except one who would watch Bonnie.

Bonnie smiled at the doctor and the nurse and headed toward the little boy Harry had been sitting beside with one of her vials.

/-

It took a month for the cure to be spread throughout all of England and the news had of course spread across the world after that. The Savior wasn't the only person to save people this year. His fiancé, soon to be wife, was also a Savior herself; stopping the deaths of millions of patients in hospitals across the world. She had her picture on the paper everywhere in the articles about her cure. And in the science journals she talked with scientists who had been working on a cure for Cancer for a long time. But she stayed mostly to papers and magazines as she was trying to stay out of the lime light, where she would end up if she would go to talk shows. She had been invited to go on a popular American talk show to celebrate smart women but she claimed she was too modest to ever get up on a stage to talk about it at the moment.

Harry didn't seem to mind at all which made Bonnie happier. She knew Harry didn't like the lime light and he tried to stay away as much as he could at this point. The newspapers hadn't gotten pictures of him recently since his birthday party. She didn't want to pull him out with her when she knew he wasn't ready.

Unfortunately, the talk show host was very persistent to get the girl that cured cancer onto her show; it was like having the first woman U.S. president come on your talk show. Bonnie made a compromise with her and Harry, Fish and Ginny came on with her for comfort.

By that time Harry wasn't very comfortable with people from the media because of the politicians he had been around lately since Cameron had let him come back to the meetings. The politicians happened to like him and enjoy his company but they also liked to make fun of him, making Harry very personal and sensitive. It wasn't the best time to try television appearances but Josh felt that maybe it would pull him from his cocoon.

So there they sat on the woman's bright yellow couch, the make up artists holding a brush while standing in front of Bonnie and Harry. She sighed. "It's people like you that put me out of a job," she said, as Harry shooed another makeup artist away from him since he refused to wear blush or let anyone touch his hair. It had grown longer and he hadn't cut it since it had grown to the length where he had to push it to the side to see in front of him.

The female host sat down on her chair beside them staring at Harry. "I can't believe our Savior is so young. Who saw this coming?"

Fish, Harry and Bonnie raised their hands as though it had been an actual question.

"Of course cause you're his followers, right?"

"On in five," said a camera man holding up five fingers and counting down. When he closed his fist the woman began.

"Hello, and welcome to a special episode. Today we have some very special guests. Miss Bonnevilla McNeal has agreed to come on our show today to discuss her work on the _cure for Cancer_. And with her she has brought her fiancé, Sir Harry James Potter, our Savior." There was a large cheering from the audience that not even she could calm down for at least two minutes. "Also… also here is Sir Potter's right hand man, Fish, and his girlfriend Ginny Weasley." There was polite applause.

"Actually it's Bonnie," Bonnie corrected, refusing to be called by her real name on live television.

"Of course and Fish? Is that your real name?" she asked Fish.

"It has been since I was four," Fish said.

"Mhmm, now Miss McNeal, when did you start working on this cure of yours?" the woman questioned.

"When I was seven. In school we were told to make things out of whatever we happened to carry around in our book bags. Well me and Harry being the little weirdoes that we were happened to carry some strange things in our bags so we shared. I ended up with a cure for Caner and Harry; well Harry's was confiscated by the government so we're not sure what he made."

"Do you think you'll ever get it back because of your new fame?" she asked Harry.

"Well they sent her Cancer cure but not whatever I made so I'm guessing they really don't want to give it back," Harry said.

"Does that mean you can't remember what you made?" the woman asked.

"They usually wiped our memories or brainwashed us after things like that. Bonnie knew about magic then so her mother was able to get her memory back. I'm sure they would be able to get mine back but I'm not sure I really want it."

"It sounds like a strange school," the woman said. "I'm not sure I've ever heard of Victoria's."

"Well it's in Germany for one. You self-centered Americans wouldn't hear about it unless you were looking for your own self fulfillment so you could tell other people you're not a normal self-centered American like the rest of them. Right?"

Bonnie and Fish both looked at Harry with wide eyes while Ginny couldn't stop a small giggle. Bonnie took over. "It's a school for the gifted. In Germany as Harry said. They usually only accept the best. Any type of special gift you have is enough to get you in. Harry had a gift for art and I had a gift for chemistry, or potions. Then you had to speak at least four of the main languages, French, English, and Spanish and of course German. Everyone except Harry who didn't even speak till he got there, right?"

"Only when necessary," Harry said blatantly.

"You didn't talk. You went to this school when you were five yes?"

"Yes and I spoke six languages by the time I got to the school I just preferred not to express myself through words. I regularly wrote my dialogue to the teachers or expressed my anger by kicking them in the shin."

"You hit your teachers?" the woman asked, shocked.

"All the time. I didn't get in trouble because I was their special, special student. Bonnie didn't either because if you got angry at her I might shave your head in your sleep while she shoves poison down your throat. We were horrible little children."

"You poisoned your teachers?"

"No, that was just an example. I would never be able to kill anyone who didn't seriously deserve it. God would hate me for that and send me to hell. We did give a teacher a heart attack once but it was entirely his own fault. His anniversary of his death is tomorrow if anyone wants to celebrate with us," Harry said to the crowd. "He was a very nice man. A little crude but he never winced when I kicked him."

"I'm sorry but… I find it strange that our Savior—"

"Me."

"Right, I find it strange that our Savior was so… well… cruel."

"I wasn't cruel. I was young and my teachers labeled me as the genius little bastard. I was only living up to the name."

"Oh, you're not allowed to say that on television," she said quickly, though they bleeped it out.

"Sorry, we don't watch television," Bonnie apologized.

"You don't?"

"No," Fish said. "St. Jimmy thinks that television pollutes the mind with mainly sexually affiliated things. Nobody in the group watches more than Law and Order, but not SVU. At least those of us who follow the rules."

"And Miss McNeal, you follow these rules as well? Does Mister Potter control all the things you watch or are you allowed free rain because you're going to be his wife?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Bonnie asked confused and surprised.

"You used to be "St. Jimmy's" follower were you not? Now that you're going to be his wife does that mean that the old rules don't apply anymore? Or do you still follow all his orders?"

"I'm still a follower if that's what you're saying and I'm also going to be his wife."

"So you have no rights. You're just legally bound to him in matrimony and he'll still be telling you what to do, what to watch, what to say, your religion as well I'm guessing by how he is about his own. I also heard that you've never had a boyfriend before you and Sir Potter started dating. Was that of his doing as well?"

"That is really none of your business," Harry interrupted as Bonnie's mouth hung open at a lost for words. "Our personal life is ours alone and you have no business questioning the workings of our relationship. And for your information, as you're so obviously the self-absorbed American that is prejudiced about, my followers and my relationships are two completely separate things."

"Ah yes, cause you've dated your followers before haven't you?"

Harry looked like punching something but instead took Bonnie's hand. "I request that you go to a commercial please," Harry said politely.

The producers signaled that this was the best idea and the show went to commercial. Harry quickly stood taking Bonnie with him and headed to the back. "I'm so suing her," Harry said, glaring at the woman from across the room. "This is what I get for not watching stupid American television all my life."

"That was wonderful wasn't it?" asked the host as she walked up to them with a big smile on her face. She looked exhilarated as though she had just run a wonderful mile.

Harry glared at her like he wanted to tear her to shreds and burn her with the fire that came out of his fingers.

"Sir Potter, it went wonderful. You make for such wonderful gossip. Why are we going to commercial?" she question.

"Are you ten years younger then you look or are you just an idiot?" Harry asked coldly. "What was with the third degree on personal questions? I specifically remember that this was supposed to be about Bonnie finding the cure for Cancer. Not our relationship or my followers or me. You went completely over the line. It's no wonder I don't watch television, you hosts are all idiots who have no better qualities than to talk people to death."

"That's quite rude. All I did was my job. Now we better get back to the set, we're about to go back on."

"Over my dead body. You won't get any of us back on that set."

The host smiled and turned to Bonnie. "Are you going to follow your husband's orders?" she asked.

"Of course I am," Bonnie said, taking Harry's hand. "You bitch." They both turned together and Fish and Ginny followed behind smiling. His guards followed as well.

"You can't just leave; I have another 45 minutes to get through with no other guests."

"That's too bad."

/-

The next morning their television debut was on the front page, as anything involving Harry always was. It was like a way for the papers to show their respect to him. Like if Jesus was on earth and went shopping down in London he would be on the from page right? Harry was often compared to him these days as it was unfathomable to think of anyone else comparable.

"At least they bashed the host instead of us. I can thank the papers for that," Harry said.

"Good," Josh said, sitting down beside him. "Wouldn't want you having a break down."

"Who said I was going to have a break down?" Harry asked, looking around the table.

"No one," Josh said quickly. "It's just that you've been a little out of it lately."

"I have not."

"You've been a little grumpy," Ron said.

"I have not. You're just all too sensitive. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go meet Professor Dumbledore so I can have more time convincing him to take me to Germany with him. Your father has to accept because he promised," he told Bonnie. He kissed her cheek and stood to leave, handing the paper to Fish.

Once gone and Harry was out of the hall Josh folded his arms on the table and rested his head in his arms. "I'm a horrible therapist," he murmured into his sleeve.

"No you're not Josh," Ginny said. "You're doing a wonderful job."

"Yeah, Harry's just not susceptible to admitting that he's insane and needs some help," Fish said, patting Josh's arm. "He'll come around."

"I hope so. I've never had such a difficult patient," he said, looking up. "Well, I'll leave you all to get back to your classes. I'm going to consult an associate of mine. Have a nice class," he said, leaving the table as they all said goodbye.

/-

"Savior is: Hard-Core Catholic with Shocking Mouth

.

The Savior is not what anyone would call a saint or a project as the perfect Catholic. Despite what we have all been seeing in the press about him saving the world and being this wholly nice guy he has a greatly rebellious side. He has been called, by silent sources, an anarchist, a bad mouth, someone you would not want around your kids and, despite the fact that he's engaged, not a boy you'd bring home to your mother. And yet mothers and fathers and teens are begging for his autograph and worshipping him.

We're not saying he didn't save the world and we're also not saying he can't be a good guy. We're just saying that he's not all that respectable. He has been caught calling politicians (any but The Prime Minister of England) scumbag pigs and mumbling the words "See You Next Tuesday," which we looked up to reveal as a veiled insult meaning 'the C word' as an acronym.

We're all in love with our Savior but a respected doctor at _ English hospital said, "someone needs to help him with his stress. He is obviously unable to deal with the day to day lifestyle of being "The Savior." It has been a long time since someone has been so famed and we understand that he's most likely confused but I suggest him getting some help. He's obviously an angry young man." I think we can all agree that Mr. Potter is stressed. Though who wouldn't be, with the politicians clawing at his door and having to get married at the end of the school year and I believe we've all noticed that the war seems to have left some damage on his leg. With his life being all about training that's got a put a damper on his hobbies.

Sir Potter, we wish you the best of luck and we're rooting for you to feel better." Bonnie finished and looked up at the other six who were listening closely while eating their dinner. Harry was out on a "business date" with President Bush (after Harry apologized and he was forgiven), Bill Gates, and some government people from parliament who had nothing better to do.

"They talk about him like he's dying," Bonnie said mournfully, sighing as she put the paper down and started to poke at her food.

"I think he is," Ron said dismally.

Fish harshly smacked his arm. "Don't _say_ _that_."

"I meant on the inside!"

"It doesn't matter. St. Jimmy is fine and he's not dying. If there was something seriously wrong, he would have told me. Or at least someone. And if he is sick, and he didn't tell me that he's dying I'm going to murder him before he leaves peacefully."

"You can't kill your leader Fish. You'd never go through with it," Bonnie said.

"I could if I didn't want him to suffer. Maybe. If he asked me to."

"Sure you could," Bonnie agreed. "Let's stop talking about Harry's death. He's alive and well. Not talking to us or spending time with us but somewhere in England he's alive and bored with a bunch of people he hates. He shouldn't even be there. The few times he gets to spend time with us and he spends it with those American arseholes that make him cranky when he finally does get back. I haven't made contact with that stupid lip ring for a week." She looked up at Fish. "Do you think he's having second thoughts? He's never been known for committing to his relationships."

"I doubt that he's trying to leave you Bonnie. If he was he would move to Africa and live in a tribe where they don't have any food and never come back. And Prose is still in the dorms."

"You're not actually worried about Harry leaving you are you?" Ginny asked. "I mean, he loves you. You guys are the perfect couple."

"He met three models yesterday," she said, staring trance like into her food. "And I know he hates models but it worries me. I saw them. I'm not nearly as pretty and they were hitting on him. And they were older. It's selfish but I hate his popularity," she sighed, putting her chin in her hand and giving up on her food.

"That's insane Bonnie. You're beautiful," Ginny said.

"Thanks."

"Maybe once he reads the paper he'll give up on talking to all those losers and spend more time with us," Fish said hopefully.

"I guess."

/-

Meanwhile Harry was sitting, leaned back in his chair at the table in a high class bar. There were bottles of beer spread across the table and in the other's hands. Harry was pretending to drink a Coke. The men at the table were hardly drunk but they sure liked to pretend they were. Maybe to make Harry think that it was because they were intoxicated that they started asking all their rude questions.

"Why aren't you drinking Potter? Think you're too good for us?"

"I am," Harry mumbled, taking a sip of his pop.

"That's rude. We run the country; you just save it from mass destruction. Besides, it's your fault Voldemort tried to take over the world. If you had kept him contained…"

"Yes, that's so easy. I didn't see any of you trying to stop him when he did all those muggle raids. Let's see you try and kill an evil Dark Lord, who's had sixty more years of experience, at the age of sixteen."

"You like to rub that in our face," Bush said. "At least we haven't gone crazy from any of our wars."

"Yes, and you all were at the front line were you?" Harry asked airily.

The men looked at each other. "At least we dress our age and to our career. People who have been in the paper as much as you and are as famous as you are shouldn't have lip rings and that many tattoos."

"First of all, I'm seventeen and I run an unofficial army of rebels; I can dress however I bloody well like. And second of all, I was actually thinking of getting another tattoo. I just can't think of what."

"Why don't you get the word virgin tattooed across your forehead."

"You know it's not that uncommon for a seventeen year old to be a virgin. And I'm very happy with my choices, I'm Catholic, not a sinner."

"It's only normal when the guy doesn't have a choice in the matter, not that he makes the choice. I mean, if I was the one who had hot models poking at my abdomen yesterday I would have them bedded yesterday. You could have anyone you want and you're waiting for your exciting marriage. Trust me, it's not that great."

"I don't even like models. They remind me how skinny I am and sometimes they're taller then me. Also, having sex with someone you don't know is like sitting on a dirty toilet seat that a dirty fat man just sat on two seconds ago and you can still smell what he left in the toilet. It leads to disease and I don't even shake hands with people in church unless I'm wearing a glove, so random sex partners really wouldn't work for me. Not to mention I don't want children and I'm not about to get drunk and go have unprotected sex with some dirty whore with twelve condom wrappers in her purse."

"Do you know way too many people or are you lying about not watching T.V.?"

"I know too many people. These things actually happen."

"Well then why don't you go ahead and have sex with your little fiancé?"

"Yeah, his little G-rated swanky romance novel relationship would turn PG-13."

"If she was my girlfriend… god she wouldn't be a virgin for long," the man said drunkenly, taking a swig of his drink with a drunken smile on his face.

What happened next went so fast the reporters around them almost missed it. Harry climbed onto the table and jumped President Bush, punching him in the face as they both went down to the floor. "You bloody bastard. You don't say that about my girlfriend you son of a bitch!" Harry yelled while banging the president's head into the floor until all three of his guards pulled him away and the presidents guards came to save him. "I'm not sorry anymore for making you cry you big baby. You sicko pervert. You _fucking_ wanker."

Harry was removed from the club and some of the reporters followed while others were taking pictures of the president on the floor.

Harry's guards quickly grabbed hold of his arms, while the paparazzi were yelling questions toward him, and apparated back to the castle. As soon as they ended up in front of the castle Harry threw himself into a sitting position on the grass to try and calm himself down.

"You're bleeding," his guard said, motioning to his eyebrow.

Harry haphazardly wiped the blood away and sighed.

"Are you alright Harry?"

"Fine. Do you think dinners over yet?" Harry asked.

The guard looked at his watch. "Everyone's probably in bed. It's 11:oo."

"Oh! It didn't seem that late." He looked up at the castle. "I'll just go to bed then. See myself in the paper in the morning." He pushed himself off the ground and grabbed his cane from one of his guards who had taken it for him before they left the club. He headed toward the castle with his guards following behind all the way up to the dorms.

Harry walked tiredly up toward the stairs, the time finally hitting him as he headed toward his room. Politicians were getting on his nerves. Not only because of tonight but all the other times he had forced himself to spend time with them. He had tried to get into the business to try and decide if maybe he was wrong but he wasn't. He was right. He hated politics. He hated all the people and things that went along with it. And they thought he was too young to understand what they were talking about and that's why they sounded like idiots. That wasn't it either. Harry knew exactly what they were talking about and knew exactly why people had economy problems. The government was stupid.

And then apparently it wasn't cool to be loyal and love your fiancé and not say anything against her. He really hadn't been able to think of anything, except her grandmother, but that, apparently, didn't count. They liked to make fun of him, he was like their new toy that they mocked about the lack of sex in his relationship, lack of problems, all their money, which he had more of, and her being his follower. And also very hot as was mentioned today. And now he was out of the group. The President's little comment had tipped him overboard and he would get to settle in and find something else to occupy his time. Another reason he had moved into trying politics; he was bored out of his mind because all his friends were in classes and busy with homework while he had nothing to do but talk about money with drunken politicians. Now he had nothing again. Dumbledore wasn't keeping him busy enough. If he could run or train, he would. But he couldn't. It was sad.

But at least for a little while he could be happy that the President with the tacky accent and bad vocabulary would have a broken nose.

He stepped into his pitch black room and removed his shoes and his jacket and hung them up before magically changing his clothes and pulling back the covers on his bed where Bonnie was fast asleep. She was sleeping on her back on her side of the bed as they had already made their positions, in her black silk nightgown and her hair strewn across the pillow, her cheeks aglow in the light coming from the window.

Harry stroked his fingers down her cheek. They hadn't been talking lately with everything that was going on: both of their fame, her school work, potions with Snape, and Harry's classes with Dumbledore and long meetings with people he hated. She would of course, somehow find free time to spend with him but then Harry would get dragged away by someone who wanted him to convince somebody of something or answer some question.

He always told her he was sorry he couldn't spend more time with her and she would sigh in front of the fire in the Head's commons where she did her homework with the others. She would turn to him and smile and tell him it was alright and she understood, before turning back to her homework. Harry could see the hurt in her eyes and that she did mind but didn't dare say something about it. He knew in that one way she was like the other girls that wanted him. She told herself when to say nothing and she feared his response being their end if she spoke back. She saw him, in one way or another, as a prize. Something she got because she had desired it most. Harry didn't mind this as he had made her wait a long time for him so it made sense that she was so excited about them being together. But he felt bad for being so rude and ignoring her. He loved her and he knew he should show it better. He knew he should spend more time with her. And from now on, Bonnie would come first. He missed her so much.

He leaned down and kissed her forehead, starting to stroke his hand into her curls. "Pet," Harry whispered in her ear, placing a kiss on her neck. "Baby, wake up for me," he whispered, kissing her cheeks and her forehead.

Bonnie groaned and squinted as she woke up and felt the light on her face. "What is it?" she mumbled sleepily. "Is it morning?" she asked, turning onto her side and wrapping her arm around him so she could pull herself closer.

Harry smiled, running his hand over her curls. "No, it's not morning."

"Then why am I awake? Let's go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning," she sighed, tugging at his shirt as she curled up against his chest and nuzzled him comfortably.

"But we'll have other things to discuss in the morning and this is important. Who knows what memories and thoughts leave my head while I'm sleeping?"

Bonnie sighed. "All right. What is it?" she asked, not removing herself from her position.

Harry moved down so that Bonnie was forced away from his chest and he could look at her face to face. She groaned until Harry pressed his lips against hers and leaned over her slightly. Bonnie moaned and wrapped her palm around the back of his neck pulling his lips closer as she separated hers. Harry pulled away before they could get any farther.

Bonnie groaned again. "You wake me up, get me all prepped to snog after a week of nothing whatsoever and then you stop. Do you want to torture me?"

Harry smiled and placed one more kiss on her lips. "I love you," he said softly. "You know that right?"

"Of course," she smiled happily. "I love you to."

"And you know that you're mine now," he said, rubbing his thumb over her ring as he held her hand against the pillow. "I won't give you up for anyone in the world no matter who wants you or who wants me. I'm keeping you."

"I have no problem with that at all," she smiled. "I'm keeping you to."

"Good. So you won't mind me punching more people out and it being in the newspaper right? I was just protecting you."

"Who did you punch?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Let's not worry about that now. We'll discuss that in the morning when we get the paper," he said, brushing his lips against hers.

"But—"

"No," he stopped her, "kissing now." He pressed many light kisses to her lips till she gave in and returned his affections pulling him all the way over her, his weight comforting like his words. He had settled all of her nerves that she had earlier at dinner and now she couldn't even remember why she had been so nervous.

/-

Bonnie woke up peaceful and well rested, even though her and Harry had made out for two hours at 11:oo at night. Harry had his arms wrapped around her waist and her back was to his chest and their legs tangled together. She smiled and snuggled back closer to him.

Harry moaned and kissed her shoulder. "Good morning pet."

"Morning," Bonnie smiled, untangling their legs and turning to face him, tangling up their legs again. "So, who did you punch?"

"It'll be in the newspaper. Wait till breakfast will you?" Harry chuckled, running his hand over her waist and kissing her.

"I've missed you. I don't like when you stay away, I never see you," Bonnie pouted, their foreheads pressed together. "You know we never kissed all of last week. I started to miss your little lip ring," she said, pressing her finger to his bottom lip.

"I don't think that will be a problem anymore," Harry smiled. "I have a hunch I'm not going to be invited to their little outings any time soon," Harry smiled, brushing his lips against hers. "But I had one night of fun with them. I think it was almost worth it."

"Well now I'm very interested to find out who you punched," Bonnie smiled.

"I'm sure. Then maybe we should start getting dressed so we can head down to breakfast," Harry said, pulling himself up in bed.

Bonnie sulked, lying her head down at his waist. "I don't want to. I'd rather stay here with you."

"I'm going to breakfast."

"I don't want to share you with the rest of the world."

"Sorry darling but you really must. After breakfast I have to go visit Madam Pomfrey. I've been getting some random, bloody horrible headaches."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked quickly, sitting up with him.

"It wasn't painful enough to be worth mentioning," Harry said, crawling out of bed. "Now we should get dressed before people start to wonder if we've eloped," Harry said, heading over to his closet.

"We should. Then we can skip the rest of school and we won't have to deal with all those freaking traditions that I'm sure my mother and grandmother will make me put up with. And all those wedding lists and dealing with which of your followers are going to join in at our wedding and you poor dear will have to go through the stress of who will be your best man."

"Damn, I'd almost forgotten," Harry mumbled.

"Sorry. But really, we should elope. I'd be so romantic."

"We'd only be married for a month before our parents tracked us down and killed us for not being invited to their first child's wedding. Your grandmother will hate me even more. Not that I really care," Harry said, pulling off his shirt to change it with another.

"Well you're not all that modest anymore are you?"

"We're not kissing, nor are we in bed. Taking my shirt off is almost like playing strip poker or going swimming."

"So if I get down to my undergarments we can just pretend we're going swimming," she smiled, turning to flick her strap off her shoulder and then smiling back at him mischievously.

"No, that doesn't count," Harry said, magically switching his pajama pants for his tight black jeans, "you're much more tempting then I am."

"Well thank you, I guess." She crawled off the bed and headed to the closet to grab her clothes as Harry went to brush his teeth.

/-

Once sitting down at the breakfast table Harry ate, feeling as though he hadn't had an actual meal in a month. Fish was suddenly by his side and pulling Harry into a hug catching him by surprise. He pulled away and smacked his shoulder. "You can't leave me alone with these dolts anymore you know."

"What dolts?" Harry asked

"The—" Fish haphazardly walked over the food on the table to make it to the other side.

"Mr. Hatch, get off the table!" McGonnagal shouted.

"The twins," he started again, ignoring McGonnagal as he got down into his seat, "are discovering their sexuality and Ron spends all his time with Hermione. The only person I have to spend time with is Bonnie and your father, godfather, and Remus, and your fiancé happens to complain about you not being here more then I do."

"I'm very sorry for your unhappiness Fish. What's this about Tim and Tom and their sexuality?" Harry asked.

Fish pointed behind Harry toward the Ravenclaw table. Tim and Tom were sitting with two sixth year boys, obviously flirting with them.

Harry turned back to Fish. "_They're gay_?"

"Yeah! Who didn't see that coming?"

"I didn't."

"You don't have anything against this do you?"

"Of course not. To each man his own. But I'm really surprised. I didn't see that coming."

"Well it did, and now I'm left to humor your future wife. This is not my job."

"Whatever happened to Ginny?"

"She has her friends. I've never heard of a girl wanting to spend more time with friends her own age rather then her very sexy older boyfriend."

"It's driving you mad that she knows your name and is wandering around with people she could blab it to isn't it?"

"Ever so, but that's not the point. The point is that you are wandering around with famous people you hate and torturing yourself and while you may enjoy putting yourself in pain I do not. And you being in pain just happens to cause me pain, do you understand? So _make_ yourself happy," he said aggressively.

"Alright."

"Alright." Fish slumped into his seat and poked at his food.

Tim and Tom sat down beside him and the others joined as well as soon as the owls came flying in with the mail. Harry collected the newspaper from Hedwig as she ate bacon from his plate. He opened it to observe the front page. There he was, displayed in all his glory climbing onto the table, trampling the President, and punching him before slamming his head into the floor twice. Then the photo started again. It was titled: Savior Tramples U.S. President.

"It made the front page," he smiled. "Well of course it made the front page. That is a great photo. I'm having it framed and I'm hanging it in my trunk. So when you see me staring at the top of my trunk for hours with a big smile on my face, this is what I'm staring at." He turned the paper to the others to show them. "I punched him. Though the reason wasn't so fun, but now I feel great that I finally got to do it."

"You punched him? Didn't you get enough when you made him cry?" Ron asked.

"No! And trust me. You would have punched him to if you heard what those damn bloody men were saying. A bunch of freaking bloody perverts the lot of them."

"What did they say?" Bonnie asked.

"Nothing I'm going to repeat aloud. Let's see if the paper discusses it."

/-

**Savior Tramples U.S. President**

Last night the Savior was at a high class pub with some of the higher level politicians having a drink. Sir Potter was drinking a Coke. During a part of the jarring conversation President Bush made a vulgar comment to the table and to Sir Potter specifically, about Sir Potter's fiancée Ms. McNeal. The comment in question was not heard completely but the words: 'G-rated, swanky, romance… relationship would… and thirteen," from the first man and: "If she… my girlfriend… wouldn't… a virgin… long." We really don't want to guess what they were really saying but we guess you can make it out yourselves. I hope everyone in America is ashamed of their drunken president. He's a very dirty man.

Lee Ann Grouter

.

"I like her. All her entries are short and simple," Harry said.

"Why were you all talking about me?" Bonnie asked, taking the paper and freezing the picture so she could punch out the president's eyes with her quill.

"I wasn't. They were trying to mock me and the fact that I don't want to have dirty unprotected sex with disease infested prostitutes."

"Eww," Fish said.

"And this conversation led to me?" Bonnie asked.

"Well, that's where I was trying to lead the conversation but they told me I should just go sleep with you and well… it went on from there."

"That's disgusting. You boys are disgusting. Fish, you never had a prostitute in your bed did you?" Bonnie asked, poking one eye out.

"Not in my bed, no. Never had a reason. I had dirty hillbilly girls across the river."

"And that's all you'll ever get if you don't stop talking about your ex's," Ginny said, sitting down beside him.

"Bonnie asked. And you weren't here a second ago," Fish told her, winning the fight as he stuffed his breakfast into his mouth.

"Fine. So, are we going to Hogsmeade today? I heard everyone is leaving today," Ginny said, changing the subject.

"I can't. I'm going to see Madam Pomfrey and then Josh wants to check up on my head and then my dad wants to take me to Gringotts to talk with his investment banker about transferring my funds into my name or whatever. But if the rest of you want to go…" Harry explained.

Bonnie sighed. "I knew we shouldn't have left the bedroom."

Harry smiled and kissed her cheek.


	39. Here We Go a Vaulting…

AN: Thank you to the two readers who reviewed. I appreciate it.

Lol: Thank you for your review. It was sweet and I'm glad you like it.

Mistress Saturn1: Another big thank you to you. I'm really glad that you like it and thank you for reviewing.

.

.

.

.

Chapter 38

Here We Go a Vaulting…

Harry sat down on one of the beds in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was looking over a second year that had caught her hair on fire in the Potions lab and once it was put out someone's not-so-well-done potion exploded on her and her skin turned purple. Once Madam Pomfrey had fixed her up, she left and Madam Pomfrey headed over to him.

"Potter, I do not believe we had a scheduled appointment today. I believe it was on Tuesday if I'm not mistaken."

"I know. I'm not actually here for that. For a couple weeks now I've been getting these horrible headaches."

"You don't seem like you're in too much pain," Madam Pomfrey said, sitting down on the chair beside his bed.

"Well I have a very high tolerance for pain. Something small could feel horrible to someone else." (Ex. being shot in the arm)

"Alright, lay back. I'll look you over."

Harry lay back on the bed and Madam Pomfrey ran her wand over Harry. When she was finished Harry sat up and looked at her.

"Potter, what have you been doing with yourself?"

"Nothing. Is it from hanging around with those politicians? I knew I must have caught something from them. It's horrible isn't it? I've never been sick in my life, at least anything caused by germs or disease."

"You're not sick Harry. But you're body hates you. Have you been in contact with any cold water recently?" she asked, headed over to her desk and grabbing a book and opening it to a marked page.

"Um… maybe."

"Yep, your body hates you. The heat that runs through your body because of the fire element you possess is punishing you for constantly trying to put it out with cold water. It gives you a horrible headache I suppose. Like brain freeze. They say there are side effects but no one's recorded the side effects of a fire elementalist."

"Well that's great. The cold was making the headaches feel better and all this time it was causing it as well. How ironic."

"Yes ironic. Just stop soaking in ice water and you should be fine," she said, closing the book.

"I guess. Are there any books on elements? Fire, specifically?"

"No, you have to solve most of these things on your own. Any other ailments you'd like to tell me about?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Alright, then while you're here we can check out that leg of yours."

/-

After meeting with Josh and discussing his recent meetings with the politicians and his brawl, he was off to his father's office to meet him. Without knocking he stepped into his father's office and caught the three men and their girlfriends, or wife, sitting around the room looking very bored.

"Well aren't you all a lively bunch," Harry mocked, moving his bangs back to see them better. "Mother, if you're here, where is little Sirius?"

"He's with the nanny. And don't say anything Harry James Potter. I need adult interaction," Lily said.

"I don't even like kids; you don't have to explain to me. Except that I would have chosen some one else to spend my time with if this is what you're reduced to," Harry said, sitting on the arm of the couch his father and mother were sitting in.

"Where are all of your friends?" Sirius asked.

"In Hogsmeade, keeping one of my guards company so he can keep the reporters away from my fiancé. They're getting quite feisty these days."

"You poor thing. I feel your pain," Sirius said. "Yesterday a seventh year tried to hit on me. I thought I was too old to get seventh years."

"Your girlfriend is twenty-four, what are you talking about?" Remus asked.

"That's different," Sirius said, taking Jackline's hand.

"I'm glad Bonnie and I are such good matchmakers," Harry said, smiling at the couple who then turned to glare at him. "It's true that opposites attract." He sighed. "Now father, are we gonna leave so I can get my money from you or are you trying to transfer all of your boringness to me."

"That's very nice Harry. Don't insult your father," Lily said.

"Why? He doesn't mind. It's his idea to give me money. I'll never use it."

"Yes you will. My grandchildren will need it," Lily said pointedly.

"Then shouldn't you give it to Sirius?"

"I'm serious Harry. You will produce me grandchildren or so help me Merlin, or God; I will bother you about it till the day I die again. And if that doesn't work I will discuss adoption with Bonnie until she gets so annoyed with me she'll actually complain to you."

"What do you mean 'actually complain'?" Harry asked. "Bonnie complains all the time."

"I want grandchildren Harry."

"I understand mother. And I would like to live in a world where I don't need a therapist and bodyguards but we don't all get what we want. So until the thought of having children could even possibly come to anyone's mind I am going to live in my slightly pleasant little land where I don't have to care for nasty, dirty children with sticky, spitty hands who will cry and shit in their pants and make me clean it." He shivered. "Now, I think we should leave before we need to call Josh in, and mother! No more talk of children until I hit at least twenty. Got it?"

Lily turned away and mumbled to herself.

"Let's get going," James said, standing off the couch and kissed his wife on the cheek as Harry headed to the door. James followed and they both left.

"Are we apparating to Gringotts because I can double apparate us out of the castle instead of us walking out to Hogsmeade to do it, where I can get trampled?"

"What about your guards?"

"I taught them. They can do it by themselves now. Now let's go," Harry said, taking his father's wrist tightly and apparating at the same time as his guards.

/-

When arriving at Gringotts Harry made sure to put his cane down first to steady his fall from going down on his bad leg. He was getting better at this. Though his guards were quickly at his sides to check.

As quickly as they arrived, an older man, in his mid-forties with dark brown hair and blue eyes, came to meet them. Tall and quite rugged but in a nerdy way that only a man working in a bank for half his life could pull off, dressed in a blue suit. He walked up and took James's hand and shook it.

"Nice to see you again Mr. Potter."

"You to Alan," James smiled before turning to Harry. "Alan, this is my son, Harry. Harry this is Alan Rorsh. My financial advisor."

Alan gave a short bow looking unsure. Harry gave him a reassuring smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"You as well sir."

"We should go to your office to discuss the paperwork," James suggested, as Alan continued to stare.

"Oh, of course. Follow me." He led them both through the corridor and into an office with his name on the door. He closed the door and sat down behind his desk inviting them to sit down in the two seats in front of it. He took out a stack of papers from his desk drawer and set them on the desk. "Now the Potter family has a combination of eleven vaults from inheritance of Merlin and all further descendants. Mr. Harry James Potter is at the moment in the possession of ¼ off the primary Potter vault, which is the only one currently in use. The main thing we must discuss is which vault in question would Mr. Harry Potter like to inherit this moment?"

James and the man both looked to Harry who looked at them both and shrugged uncertainly.

"Any of them I guess; preferably the one with the least amount of money."

"Of course. Well the vault containing the least amount is the Accommodo vault," he said, looking through the papers. "It holds, fifty million galleons."

"That's more than people win in the lottery."

"Yes. And that's the least amount from eleven vaults," James said. "Take vault number two. I'm using number three. Vault two was written up for you when you were born so I won't have to sign anymore paperwork if you choose that one."

"How much is in that one?" Harry asked Alan.

The man searched a paper with his eyes. "Vault two is now holding sixty-five billion galleons; a hundred thousand pounds worth in Merlin's heirlooms. It also holds an assortment of books, Potter documents, and a Potter family ring, which it says here, is customary to wear after your seventeenth birthday."

"I have to wear a ring?" Harry asked, turning to his father.

James smiled at him and held up his own hand showing his own Potter ring. "It's tradition; please do this for me. You're my first born and I can't pass this tradition off to Sirius. It wouldn't count."

"Fine, I'll wear the ring. And I'll accept the vault."

"Good. Would you like to inspect the vault before you sign for it?" Alan asked, collecting the papers.

"No it's fine," Harry said calmly.

Alan nodded and placed a paper and pen in front of Harry and pointed at the line Harry was supposed to sign. Harry signed the paper and Alan took the documents back and filed them back into the folder and into his desk. James leaned over his chair and pulled Harry into a painfully uncomfortable hug, considering the chair arms that were between the both of them, digging into their sides. Apparently James didn't mind.

"I'm so proud. Let's go visit that vault so we can hand over that ring," James said excitedly, jumping out of his chair and pulling Harry out of his and leaving the office before Alan even stood.

/-

Harry stood in front of the vault, staring at large piles of gold around a 30 x 30 foot vault. There were books stacked around in corners, hiding their dust in the shadows and where they couldn't catch fire from candle light, which lit when the doors opened. Papers were stacked in piles, around gold and books, in folders and hanging off other piles of books. It didn't seem very organized but it didn't really matter.

James seemed like he had been here a million times as he headed from the door to look for something in the corners around piles of gold. While he was searching Harry wandered aimlessly and grabbed a thick pile of papers off a stack of books. He sat down on the books and sorted through the papers.

**.**

**Red Ties**

**12****th**** of January, 1264**

_**The Potter family has agreed to make red ties with the Rorwin family. Within this document it has been agreed that between the marriage of Edward William Potter to Elizabeth Jane Rorwin a truce will be made on this date of January, 1264. The couple will be married this day at 12 o'clock noon and with this document, be valid. If for any reason an offense is made in the marriage this contract will be made void. Faults are as stated:**_

_**.**_

It went on to state the faults that could occur in the marriage to void the contract and then a date again and the couple's signatures. Apparently an arranged marriage was made between two families to stop fighting between the families.

He was pulled away from his reading as his father came up and sat on a stack of books beside him. He held out a red velvet ring box to him.

Harry looked up at his father curiously before accepting the box. He opened the box to reveal a practically stone made ring, as though it had been carved out a boulder. And it just happened to look his size. It was shined a bit and looked modernized over the years with silver and coloring. It was detailed with what Harry guessed must be the Potter family crest.

"It looks really old," Harry commented, rolling the stone around between his fingers.

"Well this ring, like all other Potter family rings, has been passed down for centuries, upon centuries, upon centuries. It's very important."

"So I' m wearing some dead guys ring?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows at his father before looking back at the ring.

"Yes, of course." He paused as he watched Harry play with the ring. "It was your grandfather's."

Harry paused his fidgeting. He looked up at his father's calm face. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. This was his vault to. That's why it was so important to me that you take this one. Now everything from him is left to you. Just the way he wanted it." He turned to face Harry as they both faced the ring. "My dad and I, we nicknamed them the grandfather rings when I was younger. He had told me about them when I was ten and I was always so excited to get mine. Potter family tradition is that you get yours on your seventeenth; other families give it away on your sixteenth. We nicknamed them the grandfather rings because sons would always get their ring from their grandfather. You got your ring from my father, and when you have a son, I'll get to pass mine on to him."

"That's…really cool dad," Harry said, smiling.

"Yeah, I always thought so. Your brother will get one to, of course; except his will be from a different family member. Potter males haven't had any brother's for a long while now. I was an only child; you were for a little while. My father was an only child and so was his father. I believe it's been an only child for generations. And strangely enough they've all been boys. It would be nice if someone had a daughter down the line."

"I guess."

James stared at his son. "Are you okay? You're going to wear the ring aren't you?"

"Of course dad. I'm not going to betray the tradition," Harry smiled, "especially since it means so much to you." He held up his hand, palm down, and asked, "What finger do I wear it on?"

"Your right hand, index finger." Harry took his hand down and slipped the ring onto the specified finger. James quickly pulled him into a hug. "I'm so proud. I thought this moment wouldn't happen because I'd be dead but here we are and I'm so happy."

"You're emotional aren't you dad?" Harry joked.

"Shut up. This is an emotional moment; I'm allowed to be over dramatic okay? You're my first born son and this is a prized moment for every father. When you have your own son you'll understand why I'm so weird."

"Yeah dad. Could we stop talking about kids like it's actually going to happen?" Harry sighed.

"Even if you adopt," James commented, pulling out of the hug.

"I'll only adopt if Bonnie makes me. And I really don't want them, so unless she really is in desperate want of her own babies, we probably won't have any."

"You'll feel differently when you're older. It may seem like a task but it's great. I mean, I ended up with you and look how great you turned out. And you were raised by idiot muggles."

"Yeah, I'm perfect. I have a mental problem and I worship a God you don't even believe exists."

"Harry, I told you before that that doesn't matter to me. And you are not mental. And even if you are, so is Dumbledore and he's fine so it doesn't really matter."

"Thanks." He didn't really believe his father's speech about not caring about religion; Harry knew it meant a lot to him and it must bother him. "Anyway, talking about children gets depressing. Are all these documents on marriage?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Probably just the stack you're sitting on," James said, looking the pages over. "Some others are about old houses, manors, inheritance, vault transfers, ancestry, and stocks."

"And you're letting me handle all these things?" Harry asked.

"Well you're the genius aren't you? Who better to leave it to? But no, there's no reason to worry about this stuff. It doesn't mean anything anymore, they're just records."

Harry smiled and set the papers on the floor beside him. "This was fun dad. We should talk more often. As long as it doesn't have to do with children," Harry added quickly.

"We should. You know we're all sorry about the discussions about children these days. But it's natural in pureblood families to have children right out of school so your wedding would be in a warm climate usually over Christmas break or right after your sixteenth birthday and then you'd start trying for babies."

"Is that what you and mum did?" Harry asked.

"No, her parents were muggles so they wouldn't let us get married until she finished school. My parents weren't very happy but you turned out to be a boy anyway so they weren't too upset."

"So you and mum were basically forced to have a child young?"

"More pressured, would be the correct phrase. But it's probably a good thing huh; otherwise we would have been a bit late in making a Savior huh?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed, forcing a smile. "I guess I have somewhat the same problem right? My family wants me to have children. The world will want an heir to their savior at some point. And my followers. God, they'll want something, because that's the reason most of them dislike Bonnie so much. I do wish they could just be happy with what they've got. If something horrible is bound to happen again, and I'm going to be dead or too old to deal with it, God or Merlin or whoever will take care of it and send them another warrior. But then I suppose they'd get confused, wouldn't they?"

"Have your followers asked you for an heir?" James asked curiously. He still wasn't sure how Harry's little St. Jimmy crew worked, even after the many explanations he'd gotten about it after the war while all Harry's followers were in his living room waiting to hear about Harry's condition.

"They don't ask, I guess they're fearful to upset me by discussing something they know I don't want. But they show it in other ways. Like cracking jokes at Bonnie, especially the girls, saying they could carry an heir for me and the boys don't say anything because Fish will beat the crap out of them for me. That's why I want us to get married soon. If she's my wife they'll be incapable of insulting her. In one way she'll be second in command, though she knows she'd never be able to take that position from Fish, no matter what happens to me. Fish would be insulted if I agreed to let her."

"So Fish is second in command, your right hand man right?"

"Right."

"And he wants you to have an heir?"

"I don't know. Fish would never mention it to me because he knows it's a touchy subject."

"Your group confuses me. I'll never understand," James sighed.

"That's alright. Some of my followers obviously don't understand some of what's going on. If they did they wouldn't break so many rules. The only one that can actually get you fired is to harm or insult Bonnie."

"Your followers must be terribly upset that you… chose her."

"Oh it's a never ending fight between them and their leader about his chosen mate," Harry said, quoting a book on Merlin.

"Sirs."

They both looked up to see Alan and a goblin waiting for them at the door to the vault. "Sorry to disturb you but we're not supposed to stay in one tunnel for so long," Alan said.

"Oh of course," James said, standing from his seat of books. Harry followed suit and walked with his father to the door, grabbing at least two of the books randomly from a pile they passed. They then exited the vault and it was locked behind them as they climbed back into their cart. Harry looked down at the books he grabbed. "Potter Family Lineage" and "Our Gryffindor Inheritance." The last one was stuffed with random papers every few pages, looking very old and some of the papers looking quite new.

"You had to take things with you?" James laughed as the cart started to take them steadily down the tunnel. Harry suspected that because his father was pureblood they got special courtesy and the goblin was forced to drive slowly. _Ah, the perks of being a pureblood._

/-

"Ah, The Perks of Being a Pureblood." Harry read off the chapter title aloud as he paged through the book. He was just getting through the first paragraph in the sixth chapter of "Our Gryffindor Inheritance" when the Head of House portrait opened and his friends walked in.

Harry sat up on the floor and sighed angrily. "What was taking you people so long? I've been sitting here for three hours," Harry said angrily at the group.

They all looked over at him from the door.

"Aren't you supposed to be with your father?" Bonnie asked, confused.

"We finished three hours ago," Harry repeated. "I've been reading about my inheritance from Gryffindor. Did you know that if I'm walking down the street and I drop a shopping bag or something I can command any "commoner" to pick it up for me so I don't have to stretch? Seriously, it's amazing my family isn't totally fat. I've realized that my incapability to gain weight comes from years of my ancestors starving themselves so they didn't have to pick up their crap and not get fat all at once," Harry summed up.

"You've been busy," Bonnie smiled, happy that Harry was suddenly back to his normal sarcastic and slightly cheery self after a few hours out with his father. She ran over to him and placed a kiss on his cheek, sitting on the floor beside him as the other joined in the couches around them.

"Yes I have. What have you all been up to?" Harry asked, looking at the bags the girls were carrying.

"Oh, well the girls and I went shopping for things. The boys went to the sweets shop."

"Did you get me something?" Harry asked.

"You could have come found us in Hogsmeade instead of sitting here alone," Fish said, handing over some candy.

"Oh yeah, and let the reporters jump excitedly from their bushes and begging for pictures or just taking them. And then tomorrow I'll end up on the front page with some whacked out picture of me two meters from the camera."

"Alright." Fish said, leaning back against Ginny's knees.

"Oh, and you have to see my new ring," Harry said, holding out his family ring for everyone to see. "My father made me go all wishy-washy by talking me into taking my grandfather's vault. So now I have my grandfather's money, and his ring. And then I stole some books from the vault that just happen to tell me a lot about my family. It's been a lovely day. And then, before we even left for the bank, I was bombarded by everyone, they were all sitting there and then they all started talking about children again." He turned to Bonnie. "They're really desperate. I'm starting to think there's something going on," he said to everyone. "But then my father bombarded me in the vault telling me how he and my mom were pressured by his parents to have me so that there would be an heir. And since I'm a boy his parents were less upset that my mother is muggle born. And then in some strange way my father implied that he wants a granddaughter. As well as a grandson, of course."

"So I guess we're definitely adopting then?" Bonnie smiled.

"Now that father has made me _feel_ bad."

"Well I'm happy," Bonnie said, as though she didn't care that Harry wasn't enjoying this news.

"Great."

/-

While all his friends were celebrating the victory of Gryffindor against Slytherin, Harry was sitting by the fire reading, waiting for his friends to get tired so they could go back to the Head's dorms. Harry wasn't really in the mood to celebrate as it wasn't a victory to him. Trained Gryffindor flyers against new third and second year Slytherins plus Draco and Blaise (who took up a position to help the team), didn't really seem like a fair fight.

Bonnie fell onto the couch next to him with a drunken smile.

"Looks like you've been having fun," Harry smiled. "You're not one to drink at parties."

"Only a little tipsy darling," she said. She set the whiskey bottle down on the table and then leaned against Harry and rested her head on his shoulder. "You're so comfy," she told him, snuggling down into his shoulder and hugging his arm.

"You wanna go to bed Pet?" Harry asked, stroking her hair.

"No, no. You keep reading, I'll just rest here." She sighed and closed her eyes.

Harry rested his head on hers and looked back down at his book.

/-

The next morning everyone was in classes, free from hangovers because of Bonnie's potion. Harry was sitting in the dorms, thinking quietly to himself while music played in the background. He slowly sat up from the couch and reached into his jacket pocket and unfolded the letter. He had been thinking about Voldemort's vault after he had gone to visit his own. If his family vaults held more then just money, perhaps Voldemort's did as well.

"…say the words 'Tom Riddle's key' while pointing your wand at the letter, the key to my vault will appear to you."

The things that could be found in Lord Voldemort's vault, everything the man had owned would be in it. And Harry could have the key. Who knows what he could find.

He slowly took out his wand and pointed it down at the letter. "Tom Riddle's key," he mumbled.

A small flash of light showed from the center of the letter and when it subsided a small key was sitting there on the page. Harry lifted it carefully off the paper and stared at it. It looked so simple. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, if he was expecting some extravagant key, but it wasn't this. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with this key yet but he would figure it out when he went to the vault. He lay back on the couch again and stared at the key, thinking, for the next few hours till lunch.

/-

When it was time for lunch Bonnie left classes and let the others head to the Great Hall while she headed up to meet with Harry. She walked in and found him fast asleep on the couch, his longish black hair spread over the pillow and his feet folded up on the couch holding a folded paper in his hand. She smiled and kneeled in front of him, taking the note from his fingers and setting it on the table before turning back to him and sweeping the hair from his face. She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his lips to wake him up.

Harry moaned and gently replied to her kiss before pulling away. "Hey, what time is it?"

"It's time for lunch Kumquat. Did you have a nice nap?" Bonnie smiled.

"It was lovely," Harry sighed, sitting up on the couch. "How were classes?" Harry asked, taking the letter off the table and slipping it back in his jacket.

"They were fine. Severus is starting to act weird these days though. Did you ever notice how both Draco and him look at their arms every now and then and then they sigh and act normal again?"

"I haven't noticed that," Harry said tiredly. "You haven't been sitting by Malfoy in any of your classes have you?" Harry inquired.

"No Harry, I haven't been sitting by Malfoy."

"Good. Let's go to lunch now," Harry said, standing up and taking her hand.

/-

"Sir Potter, did you tell anyone that you were leaving the castle?" Lawsin asked, as he and the other guards walked quickly to catch up with Harry's quick pace.

"I _didn't_ tell anyone that I was leaving the castle, thank you for asking Lawsin." Harry turned and they all stopped in their tracks. "Its fine, I'm not going to wander around Hogsmeade flaunting my name or something," Harry said. He turned around and started walking again. "We're just going to the bank. I'm going to look through some things and then we'll come right back here for dinner. It'll be fine."

"Sir Potter, I really think you should have an escort," Gardener suggested carefully.

"What do you think you four are?" Harry asked as they ended up at dorms after lunch. Harry had walked Bonnie to her class and had to head back to the dorms to change. Once he was clean and dressed he headed back downstairs and apparated to Gringotts with his guards.

/-

As he stepped onto the floor of Gringotts his guards were quickly at his side, taking his arms protectively and the other two standing close at his sides. They weren't taking any chances. Harry had always been out with someone, never alone.

Harry had a white streak, though it was looking slightly gray, through his black hair hiding his scar and was hiding his face with his hair like he had been recently. He was quite sure his picture wasn't well known enough to be recognized in disguise. He was sure almost everyone in the world knew who he was these days but it was uncommon for someone to have seen a recent picture. (Except the one with him and Bush, but you could hardly see his face.)

Harry headed up to a free Goblin and gave a small cough to announce his presence. Instead of the goblin's usual glare toward everyone, unhappy to be there, he quickly got down from his stool and came to the front to bow to Harry.

"Sir Potter," he said quietly. "I'll collect a private advisor for you," he said, quickly heading to Alan's office.

Harry hadn't wanted to talk to Alan but it didn't really matter now. He only wanted to find out what was in the vault. Voldemort, the evil Dark Lord, powerful wizard, was an interesting man himself. Harry couldn't imagine who he was behind that, at home, in his past. All he knew about his enemy was that he used to live in an orphanage and most likely tortured small animals as a child. The point was that anything could be in that vault and Harry could know the deep dark secrets of his worst enemy.

Alan came rushing up to Harry a few seconds later with the goblin following behind him. He bowed slightly. "Sir Potter," he breathed, "back so soon."

"Yeah well, I didn't want to bother my father by spending more time here than he had planned to," Harry lied. "I need to visit another vault."

"Old or new vault?" Alan asked.

"Well I'm guessing it must be quite old," Harry told him, staring down at the key in his fingers.

"Oh! You meant an entirely different vault then the ones you own. May I see the key?" Alan asked, holding out his hand.

"I'd rather hold onto it until we get there, if that's okay," Harry asked, gripping the key.

"That's fine," Alan said, a little put out. "What is the vault number?"

Harry hadn't thought about that. Voldemort didn't mention the number in his letter. For a second he took this as a sign that Riddle had played a final joke on him in his death. Gotten the last laugh. But as he looked down at the key he sighed in relief. There engraved on the top of the key was a three digit number. '214.'

"Two-fourteen," Harry mumbled aloud.

"Yes sir, follow me," Alan said, leading the way toward the tunnels. Alan waited for Harry to climb in first and his guards followed closely behind sitting as close to him as they could get. Harry had quickly gotten used to their proximity because he knew they would always be close by. Plus they were all nice guys so he really didn't care. Alan climbed in after them and was then followed by a goblin, setting off the cart at a slow ease down the tunnels.

It was a fairly long trip down to the back of the bank but they finally stopped at the right vault. The air was chilly this far back in the tunnels and Harry buttoned his jacket.

Alan stepped out first and held out his hand for Harry's key.

Harry's guards climbed out first and then helped Harry out after them. It was only then that Harry handed his key over to Alan, and watched him closely the entire time he held it.

Alan smiled at him and walked over to the vault and entered the key turning till the lock clicked. The doors opened and a light shined on the small group. Harry stepped into the vault carefully. There was more gold at the front of this vault then he had ever seen in his life. There were piles of new and old gold Galleons, a few piles of silver Sickles and but one small pile of Knuts in the far back corner.

Harry could hear Alan mumbling to himself behind at the vault door, "It's none of my business, it's none of my business," he repeated.

Harry turned to him. "You all can wait outside," Harry said, lifting a fresh note off the first pile of gold, written in Voldemort's handwriting.

Alan and the goblin headed out, followed cautiously by Harry's guards, who stopped just outside the frame of the door. Harry looked over the note.

**.**

**My Dear Harry, **

**Here is my lovely vault as you can see. It just screams, 'here's how he planned to take over the world' doesn't it?" Since you've gotten this note I'm obviously dead. I don't really care what you do with my things. Anything here could be used for proper revenge. Such as the key to my lair or books that may help certain death eaters. But I shouldn't reveal everything. I'll let you search on your own. **

**Your Favorite Dark Lord,**

**Voldemort**

.

Harry couldn't help but smile. Voldemort was basically insuring his own place in heaven by letting his enemy seek revenge on his spirit. Harry was sure that was enough.

He set the letter back down and searched for any stacks of books. He stepped around a, literally, mountain of gold, and found more than a pile. It could be a library. He decided to take them all and sort them all later at Hogwarts. He shrunk them to miniature size and placed them in his coat pocket. When finished he looked around the vault. "Now, if I were Voldemort's house key, where would he put me?" Harry asked himself.

_Like finding a needle in a haystack,_ he thought.

It was far too easy but he tried. Pulling out his wand he mumbled, "accio Voldemort's lair key."

To his right, there was something shiny wiggling its way out of a pile of heavy books and papers on the floor. It then flew out from between the papers and into Harry's hand.

"Wonderful, but I must wait for some other time to go searching around his dangerous house," he said to himself, slipping the key into his inside coat pocket with the vault key. He then headed over to the pile of books the key slid out of. He tugged at the middle and the pile fell over leaving him with floor plans for a large house.

Harry folded up the papers and placed them at the front of the book and shrunk it, putting it in his pocket. He looked over the other books but nothing seemed too important that he had to take it at the moment so he left them.

He grabbed a random pile of papers near the books, wrapped in manila folder and shrunk them as well; putting them in a safety spell so they wouldn't fall out.

He guessed that, until he went to the house this was all he was going to be able to collect besides money, which he didn't need. He magically re-stacked some books and headed back to the entrance.

"We should leave now sir," his guard said, taking his arm.

"I'm going," Harry said, closing the door and waiting for Alan to lock it so he could take back his key.

Alan smiled at him and Harry climbed back into the slow cart. Harry estimated fifteen minutes to get back to the bank. He thanked Alan and the goblin for their assistance before leaving to the bank entrance.

His guard grabbed him by the arm protectively, as the bank had gotten more crowed since they first came in, and they apparated back to Hogwarts.

/-

Harry walked alone down to the Great Hall to meet up with his friends for dinner. They were all congregated at the groups small part of the table at the end. He went over and sat down next to Bonnie while they were talking.

"What are we all talking about?" Harry asked.

The talking stopped and they all looked over at him.

"What? Did I miss something?"

Bonnie smacked the back of his head.

"Oww, what?"

"Where have you been? I went to get you for dinner twelve minutes ago and you weren't there? You don't have classes with Dumbledore today so where were you?"

"I was working? It's not like I'm dying okay? Would you calm down?"

"What were you working on?"

"…Things."

"What things?"

"Does it really matter? I'm here now, I'm completely intact. Everything's fine."

"Whatever," Bonnie sighed.

"What do you mean whatever? Are you having a bad day? Because you're kind of grumpy."

"I am not."

"You're being evil towards me and you're not even speaking French," Harry pouted.

"I'm not being evil."

"You're being the Hell part of your Hell's Angel nickname," Harry said, taking a bite of dinner.

Bonnie's mouth fell open shocked as Harry watched her reaction. "Is that your weird way of calling me a bitch?"

"When have I ever called you a bitch? Who have you been talking to? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She stood up. "I'm not hungry. I'm going to bed."

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Bonnie said angrily, heading toward her room.

When she left the Great Hall Harry turned to his friends. "What's wrong with her?"

"Her grandmother called her this morning," Fish explained.

"What the hell?"

"Apparently a newspaper in Ireland, where Mrs. McNeal happens to be, is starting a pole on all your ex-girlfriends and is doing an interview on your longest relationships."

"Like they'll find one," Harry mumbled.

"And Bonnie's grandmother was informed through her gossip line about this little article."

"If they keep doing articles like this without asking me I'm going to pick up a horrible stress relieving habit. Like smoking."

"Smoking would cause you more stress and you would end up taking off all your skin."

"A good reason at to why it's really unhealthy." Harry sighed. "I need some sort of agent who can talk to these people for me."

"Aren't you worried about Bonnie?"

"I don't have that many exes."

"Yes you do," Fish said.

"None they can interview. My last relationship before Bonnie, besides Cho, lasted three days and we only went on two dates."

"I think you should go check on Bonnie, Harry," Ginny said. "She's really upset. Her grandmother really influences her thoughts and she didn't even tell us what she said."

"Alright. But she'll get over it at some point," he pointed out, really not wanting to discuss his exes with Bonnie. "I hate talking about this," he groaned, standing from the table.

Harry headed back up to the dorms and up the stairs into his room and closed the door behind him. Bonnie was lying on his bed, staring at the wall. She closed her eyes as soon as he came in, pretending she was asleep.

"Well I'm glad you at least come here where I'll expect you but I do have a bum leg you know. You could at least pout somewhere close by so I don't have to climb so many stairs," Harry sighed, sitting down on the bed beside her. He looked over at her and she was still as stone, her breathing perfectly calm to fake her sleeping act. "I know you're not asleep so you can regulate your breathing." She did. He climbed farther onto the bed and leaned over her, one arm on each side of her waist. "Pet, how many times do we have to discuss this? I have to save some of my romantic lines for our vows." It almost made her smiled.

"It's not that. It's my grandmother." She squeezed her eyes shut and sobbed. "She'll never like you."

Harry stopped to think for a second and then turned back to her. "You're just figuring this out now?"

She turned to her back and looked up at him. "Well of course it was obvious before. With all the rude comments you both make at each other and all. But we're getting married Harry. Look at the ring you put on my finger," she said, holding up the huge rock. "How can she not be happy? You're perfect and we're getting married and I don't know what she wants from you? I thought if we were married that she would just have no choice and give in. But she's just being a horrible."

"You have to stop worrying about your grandmother pet. She's lonely and cranky and she's trying to make you end up like her. Your mother doesn't care what she thinks and neither does your aunt. Your aunt got divorced; she obviously isn't in the mood to listen to your grandmother."

"I don't know. It's just when I was little and I was imagining my wedding with you," she said modestly, "she would make fun of me. And I told her that one day you would prove yourself to the world and it wouldn't be so insane to want to marry the poor, dirty boy that lived down the street. She didn't like you then, she doesn't like you now, which means she thinks I'm stupid. She has the highest expectations and I want to make her happy."

"There's no possible way to make your grandmother happy unless you marry one your disgusting cousins. Or stay single and move back to Ireland to join her card club and drink spiked punch, discussing drunkenly which Minister of Magic in history was the hottest. "

Bonnie smiled slightly because she couldn't help it. "I guess you're right. Of course you're always right."

Harry kissed her forehead. "So none of this was about the article?"

"No, it was about what else she told me. First that she's disappointed, second about the girlfriends, and then third that she's joining us for Christmas this year. In France."

"That's not funny Bonnie."

"It's not supposed to be. She wants to visit me so we can talk about the wedding and about you and she's bringing some of my cousins, boy and girl cousins, and personally, I never knew I had so many aunts."

"Distant relatives?"

"Of course. She wants to tempt me with marriage you know. And I'm sure she'll want to bother you."

"I feel sick just thinking about the coming Christmas vacation," Harry sighed.

"Oh but you'll be happy to know that your favorite person is coming as well."

"Your father always comes to Christmas."

"Not him."

"Da Vinci is dead."

"Not him. My grandfather."

"Oh. But I thought he never wanted to be within a hundred miles of your grandmother ever again ever since they, 'parted ways'," he said mysteriously. Bonnie's grandmother didn't believe in divorce because it was a pureblood marriage and that wouldn't be a very good show for the family, so her husband moved to Japan for a little while before moving back to a rich pureblood area in a remote wizard area in Europe and her grandmother moved to France and then, apparently, back to Ireland. The two never spoke.

"He doesn't. But he felt so moved about your knighting, he had to come congratulate you. I won't see you the entire vacation," Bonnie sighed.

"Who knows?" Harry said, lying back on the bed and pulled her down with him where she turned to lean over him. "Your grandfather does keep me quite busy and we'll have so much to talk about now. I haven't seen him since I was nine and he didn't even say goodbye. We'll be shooting guns and mocking politicians. And hey, I'll actually have some stuff to tell him now that I've actually hung out with some real ones. Instead of just what I learn from the news."

"Yeah. He loves you. I think he'd rather have you as a grandson than me as a granddaughter."

"Don't say that. I'd be a horrible grandson. I make a horrible son as it is."

"Harry—"

"Don't. We're making ourselves depressed." He sat up and pulled her with him. "I have something that will make you feel better," he said, summoning his sketch book. "I learned this spell a few days ago. You'll like it, I know it." He opened his book to a blank page and summoned his quill and ink. He started quickly sketching out a rose and then thickening the lines till it looked real.

"That's not a spell Harry," Bonnie pointed out.

"Yes dear, I know that. You must be patient." He leaned forward and blew on the top of the rose. When he leaned back away from it the petals of the red paper rose were fluttering at him. Bonnie gasped excitedly. Harry took her hand and led her to press her fingers against the petals to show that they were just as velvet as real ones. He blew on it again, softly, and continued before taking the stem and pulling it right off the paper. He handed her a real, full rose.

"That's a beautiful trick kumquat," she said, holding the rose to her nose to find that it smelt real too.

"I know. I'm glad you like it." He placed a kiss under her jaw and nuzzled into her neck.

"What is this infatuation you have with my neck?" Bonnie giggled as Harry's lip ring tickled her.

"You have a very nice neck," Harry mumbled, running his teeth over her skin. "Your perfume is most potent here."

"What are you doing? Trying to bite me?"

"Would you not like that?" Harry asked, nipping her skin.

"I don't know. Are you trying to draw blood?" she joked.

"Well I haven't eaten dinner."

"Very funny," Bonnie said, pulling away and pushing him back on the bed and leaning over him. "We can still go back to dinner if you're hungry."

"I'd rather have you for dinner," Harry said sensually, reaching up to play with a lock of her hair.

"You've been spending too much time with Avin," Bonnie giggled, pressing a light kiss to his lips and then moving to crawl off the bed.

"Oh, I thought we were going to snog," Harry whined.

"Oh, you're just delirious darling," Bonnie said, taking his hand to pull him out of bed with her.

"I should have cheered you up with my kisses. We would be snogging right now," Harry sighed.

"Oh but your words are so much more comforting."

Harry pulled her hand when she wasn't pulling his and tugged her toward him and into his lap. He leaned down and pressed a sensual kiss to her mouth.


	40. Into the Snake's Lair

Chapter 39

Into the Snake's Lair

Harry wandered through the halls, with his guards following behind him, quietly reading one of the books he had gathered from Voldemort's vault. He put a covering spell on it so that to anyone else it would look like an ordinary Defense book. So far he'd learned that Voldemort was a very smart Dark Lord he just used his genius for the wrong reason. And his power. He created many spells for himself, tried ways to make himself look younger at one point so he would be young on the outside if not on the inside. Harry wasn't sure why he wanted to look young; it wasn't like he ever came out of his lair besides to fight with Harry.

He turned a page where it started a new category on the dark mark that Voldemort had created. The first paragraph explained a little bit about why he wanted to create the Dark Mark, though it seemed a little like a lie coming from Voldemort. But everything written after it was smudged out along with what Harry guessed was a drawing of the dark mark, or the original dark mark. The other page started on a completely different subject. Between the pages others had been ripped out.

Harry looked up from the book to see that he had stopped in front of the library. He felt the stray pages still in his pocket and wondered if any of them were Voldemort's plans for the Mark.

He slipped into the library and looked for a seat in the back where no one would be watching him. He sat down at the table and set his open book down. He looked around to make sure no one was watching before pulling out the papers from his jacket and flattened them out on the table. Slowly sifting through them he found none of them having anything to do with the Dark Mark.

Harry sighed and leaned back into his seat trying to wonder if it was in one of the piles in the vault or if he would have to search Voldemort's lair to find the documents. Since Bonnie had told him that Severus and Draco were bothering the arms that their mark was on Harry supposed they thought that it would go away after Voldemort died, which might make sense. Unfortunately for them, that wasn't how it worked.

He looked up when he heard muffled voices coming into the library. He quickly folded up the papers and shoved them back inside his pocket before closing his book and standing to look around the bookshelves. The Curse Breaking class was in the library doing research this hour. Probably Professor Lacket decided this was better than just dismissing the class after an accident.

There were two people he knew well in this class but he was least expecting them to be sitting at the same table talking together, almost flirtingly. Draco Malfoy was opening his book, sitting closely beside Luna Lovegood, whispering to her. Harry wasn't all for making Luna's life hell and if she for some odd reason liked Draco Malfoy that was fine. Maybe she could keep him away from his dark ways. She would be good for him. So when he went over to their table he had no intention to break them up. At least long term.

He sat down and the couple quickly looked up, surprised. "Sorry to interrupt you Luna but I was wondering if I could borrow your new friend."

"Actually its boyfriend now," Luna smiled. She turned to the blond. "Right Draco?"

Draco stared at the table. "What do you want Potter?"

"Don't be so rude Malfoy. I'm very happy for you and Luna. I just need to borrow you for a second."

"What for?"

"Well we can discuss that in a moment if you'd come with me," Harry said politely as he could. When Draco didn't move Harry turned to Luna pleadingly.

Luna turned to Draco and gently poked her finger into his side and he flinched, tickled and then stood from his seat knowing she'd do it again if he didn't move. He then followed Harry to the back of the library.

"What do you want Potter? I thought you never wanted to hear my voice again. Are you going to cut something off because the anticipation has been killing me, then again you started the conversation."

"I'm not going to cut anything off. I've calmed down since then. Your comment about killing your table wasn't very nice."

"Yeah, I guess. What do you want?"

"I need to ask you a personal question."

"About what?"

"Can I see your arm?"

Draco's eyebrows furrowed together. "Why?"

"I need to see your Mark okay? I know you got one. You and Snape keep drawing attention to your arms."

"Are you stalking me?"

"No. Bonnie sees Snape after classes and you're in her classes. She told me."

Draco sighed and rolled up his sleeve to show him. "It was supposed to disappear when you killed him. Now we're waiting for it to fade."

"How do you get it?" Harry asked.

"Are you taking after the Dark Lord Potter?"

"If I wanted to take after him I would have joined him, learned all his secrets and then killed him."

"That's what my dad said."

"How is he by the way?"

"I haven't seen him since the war."

"How do you get the Dark Mark?"

"I don't know. He says some spell at your arm."

"What was the spell?"

"I don't remember. I was screaming to loud to hear what he said."

Harry was quiet. "Sorry.

"Do you know if Voldemort would have kept his secrets in his house?"

"In his office. There were so many spells around it no one could get in without the correct key. Plus no one would dare try and get inside without his permission. Why do you want to know all of this?"

"No reason. Just curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat, Potter."

"How very wise Malfoy. Sadly there is no cure for it."

Draco rolled down his sleeve again.

"Thanks for answering my questions. I promise not to bother you anymore. And good luck with Luna. Be nice to her."

"I intend to," Draco said, before turning and heading back to his table with Luna. Luna smiled happily as he sat down with her and he gave a light, shy smile back while taking her hand. Harry was glad she looked truly happy. She deserved that.

/-

It took Harry two weeks to decipher all his pros and cons of using Voldemort's key to visit his lair. He knew whatever he needed to stop the Dark Mark was in his office that Draco talked about. He was thoroughly obsessed by the time he finished his list and now he was forced by the list to go to Voldemort's lair. He had found the place of this lair in one of the folders he collected from the vault. He collected all of his things and made sure to leave a note for Bonnie telling her he was invited to have lunch with somebody she didn't know, he gave a name of course, just incase he was gone till after lunch.

His guards were standing outside his door and he quickly pondered whether it was okay to bring them along. He doubted they would tell his father he was wandering his arch foe's lair but he really didn't want to freak them out. So he took his wand, a long jacket with big pockets and apparated with his key to the directed area mentioned in the papers.

/-

Where he landed wasn't exactly what he was expecting: A tall black manor with impressive vines growing at the corners of the house and up the walls, over windows and around the door. It almost looked designed to have so many vines. It was a beautiful dark manor even though it seemed to have not been cleaned in centuries.

He carefully stepped up to the house and took the stairs up to the door. He was sure the key was only for the office and was glad the front door was unlocked. He stepped inside and was surprised to find that it was much cleaner than it was outside.

Remembering that Lucius Malfoy was still wandering loose somewhere and this was his master's house, he took out his wand and kept it close and ready.

The inside of the house was very dusty but rustic and reminded Harry of an unused museum, with art hanging from the walls, statues and marble heads on pillars placed along the foyer and in hallways. He never pictured Voldemort as a classy type of person but everything seemed so fancy and elegant. He wondered airily how he was ever going to find this office; he had never expected the house to be this big. But then the money in the vault should have warned him of that. Although the floor plans for a house that he found in the vault were quite small. He used a small spell to find the room that connected with the key and found the room he was looking for in the very back of the house.

He placed the key in the lock, turned, and opened the door carefully.

The room was a mess. Like the vault. Voldemort obviously wasn't the one keeping the rest of his house clean. He wasn't very organized. He had stacks of books in piles all over the large office room. Papers were cluttering the desk, the floor, the walls; broken quills, spilled ink and other things littered the floor. Harry wondered if he would ever find anything in here, let alone what he was looking for. He put his wand in his pocket and closed the office door before getting on his knees to start looking through the books.

/-

"Prose," Harry whined out, as his snake crawled over to him. Prose stared at him as Harry sighed. "I hate Voldemort; him and the fact that he's really unorganized. I'm unorganized in my own room too but at least I have a system to the madness. How did he find anything in this room? No wonder he didn't succeed in world domination." He pulled over another book and flipped it open. "If I organized things like this I would have forgotten what was going on." He continued to silently shift through the papers scanning to find anything of any importance to him.

.

Six hours later.

.

Harry was sitting at Voldemort's desk searching through the books he found in the drawers. He had collected seven books he thought may be important but still nothing on the Dark Mark, though he had found things on fire elementalists. He had gotten the distinct feeling that Voldemort was studying him from the types of books that littered a few piles in his office.

He flipped the page in his present book and felt a wave of relief flow through him. There it was. The same page that was in those papers he had found in the vault that had been rubbed out. It was written in this book. Or at least what was behind it. The spell that he used to make the Dark Mark was originally an archaic dark curse that Voldemort had tampered with to create what was now on his professor's arm. He would have to do some research to figure out exactly how it was supposed to come off. To figure out just what Voldemort did to this spell. There were a few papers sticking out of the back of the book that discussed some of this and he also found other books that released some information.

When he had found everything he thought he would need he shrunk it all and stuffed it into his pocket. Prose slipped into Harry's pocket as well since Harry's pockets were made bigger to fit him and Harry apparated them both back to Hogwarts.

He was glad to see that his friends hadn't gotten back from classes yet and ran upstairs to put the books he had collected away somewhere that Bonnie wouldn't see them. He didn't want to hide this from his friends but he wasn't sure how they were going to react to what he was doing. Sure, Draco or Snape would question where he'd gotten this information but he didn't have to answer them. They'd figure it out on their own most likely. But they wouldn't say anything because Harry going through Voldemort's things got the tattoo off their arms. That would be the only thanks Harry could accept if anything at all. Their silence.

He heard them all coming in downstairs and quickly hid the books and headed down to meet them.

"Hey kumquat," Bonnie greeted as she sat down, watching him come down the stairs. "How was your lunch date?"

"It was fine," Harry lied. He crawled onto the couch and sat next to her.

She cringed and plugged her nose. "Where have you been, you smell like dust?"

Harry looked up at her as she sniffed him then turned away. Harry looked down at his clothes. He pulled up his T-shirt and sniffed in the dust. He smelled like an old book. "It's not that bad."

"I thought you were all about cleanliness. Shouldn't you be scrubbing your skin right now?" she joked.

"I'm too tired to," Harry sighed and shifted so he could lie down and place his head in her lap.

Bonnie stared down at him confused. He did look quite tired but from his note he wasn't really doing anything all day. Just going to lunch with somebody and he said it went fine. She didn't question it though and ran her hand into Harry's black hair, wanting to sooth whatever was bothering him.

"I'll get cleaned up for dinner in a few minutes," Harry said, his aching mind clearing of all his continuous thoughts as she rubbed his temples and played with his hair.

/-

Harry spent the next month working on figuring out how to reverse the effects of the Dark Mark and remove it. He had gotten pretty close half way through but found a problem with his figuring and had to go through it again. Bonnie was busy with her potions assignments with Snape (who she started to refer to as _Severus_) and didn't notice the books Harry read while they were in their room. Fish and Ginny were getting along fine and Fish's name hadn't been exposed to anyone and he was getting a little less paranoid. Ron and Hermione were acting weird but for reasons nobody understood but Fish kept giggling randomly behind their backs. Tim and Tom have yet to pick up a boyfriend but were hoping to meet someone over Christmas break, which was coming up fast.

Harry's meetings with Josh were normal, nothing new. Madam Pomfrey said that his leg was shaping up well, thankfully. And the Quidditch team had won every match so far without fault. (Of course.)

Harry discovered how to reverse the Dark Mark two days before they were off to leave for break.

/-

Harry walked into the Great Hall for lunch with three large tombs floating behind him. He saw his friends sitting at the Gryffindor table and they hadn't noticed him yet. He saw at the Slytherin table Zabinni with Malfoy who was sitting with his new girlfriend, Luna. Harry walked up to them and sat down beside Luna. Draco and Blaise immediately stopped talking and turned to him as Harry turned to Luna. "Hey, can I borrow your boyfriend for a few minutes? Again, I promise not to kill him."

"As long as he comes back in one piece," she smiled.

"You're just going to send me off with Potter?" Draco asked accusingly.

Luna just smiled at him as Harry stood and grabbed at Draco's collar.

"Come on, before we make a scene. I don't have all day you know?"

Draco stood and followed Harry out of the hall as the Gryffindor table watched curiously. Harry pulled Draco into an empty classroom and set his three books onto the desk.

"What do you want Potter? Do you just enjoy bothering me and asking me annoying questions?"

"I'm here to give you your Christmas present but if you don't want it then I'll leave you alone," Harry offered.

Draco stared at him curiously for a moment. "Well what is it?"

Harry sat down on the desk beside his books. "I've inherited all of Voldemort's things after I killed him. Weirdo said I was a worthy opponent and that he wanted me to get out my revenge now that he's dead. So I decided, what the heck, everyone deserves a second chance now that the war is over right? Bonnie's alive and well, there was a bit of grief there but we're all fine now. You made some stupid mistakes like some others and this is my way of repaying the Slytherins for killing off the majority of their table. It in no way makes up for all of the lives that I have taken but I'm trying to give myself my own therapy I guess."

"Potter, what are you talking about?"

"In Voldemort's vault I found a key to his office. In his office I found books on the Dark Mark. And after a month of tiring research I discovered how to reverse the curse and get that off your arm."

"You're going to get the disgusting snake off my arm?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes, yes I am."

Draco quickly rolled up his sleeve and displayed the Dark Mark. "You get it off I'll even say thank you."

"Oh, lucky me," Harry smiled. He grabbed his book and flipped it open to the marked page. "Okay," Harry said, pressing two fingers to the eyes of the snake on Draco's arm and looked back at the book. "It might sting a little but it will _definitely_ be less pain then when you got it. Like getting a tattoo; more painful to remove then to get. Only backwards." Draco nodded and Harry continued. Harry started speaking but Draco couldn't understand until he realized Harry was hissing. Prose slipped his head out of Harry's pocket but then slipped back in when he saw that nothing was going on. Draco tried to stay quiet despite all the questions he had concerning the spell. Instead he looked down at his arm to notice that the mark was moving, as though he was being summoned, but instead of Draco being in any sort of pain it looked like the Mark itself was in pain. Burning up on Draco's arm without him feeling it and curling in on itself until it turned into a little black spot which shrunk smaller and smaller until it wasn't visible anymore. Harry stopped hissing just as it disappeared.

Harry let go and looked back at his book to make sure he did everything right while Draco took back his arm to look it over. "I guess that's it. It won't come back or anything. It's gone forever. You have a new start."

Draco was quiet, running his fingers over the space where his arm used to be marked.

"Um, if you could tell your head of house about it I'll do the same for him. I don't know if he'd give up his pride to let me remove the Mark from his arm."

"I'm sure he would," Draco said quietly, still staring at his arm. "It means a lot to be rid of it."

"Good. I'm glad you like—"

He was cut off as Draco threw himself at him in a light hug before quickly pulling away. "Thanks. Don't tell anyone about that." Draco slowly moved toward the door before leaving quickly.

/-

After a few minutes when Draco left Harry headed back into the Great Hall. Draco was back at the table, smiling like Christmas had come early and he was quietly showing his arm to Blaise under the table. Luna looked at him questioningly but didn't want to push him.

Harry headed over to his table and sat down beside Bonnie. "Afternoon," he greeted, setting his books down on the floor behind him. He looked up to see his friends staring at him confused and shocked. "What?"

"Where did you go with Draco Malfoy?" Fish asked.

"This is the second time you've been seen alone with him," Bonnie pointed out.

"So. I can talk to him if I'd like. I promised Luna he'd be back in one piece and he's fine."

"But why are you talking to him all casually?" Ron asked. "You hate him."

Harry sighed. "I can't hate him. Blaise and he are the only Slytherins left that I know personally. I feel bad."

"For killing death eaters? Still?" Fish asked.

"Shut up. I can be upset if I want to be. Josh said it's perfectly okay for me to express myself in this very calm way because I'm not hurting anyone. So you… just… shush." Harry turned to his plate and stared at it.

"I'm sorry," Fish said, also turning to his plate.

/-

Bonnie came back from her meeting with Severus in his dungeons and walked into the common room and over to Harry who was sitting on the couch reading a book. She stood in front of him silently and he slowly lowered his book and looked up at her.

"Hey pet, how was potions with Snape?"

Bonnie sharply pulled a letter from her pocket and held it out to him. "It's from Snape. He told me to give it to you immediately and not to read it." She seemed quite upset that she wasn't allowed to read it.

Harry slowly took the letter from her hand and she went to sit down at the fire beside Ginny. Harry watched her for a second until he figured she would get over it and then turned to the letter. He broke the seal and unfolded the letter.

**Mr. Potter,**

**Mr. Malfoy has informed me of what you have discovered. I'm unsure how you've made this wonderful discovery but I accept your offer, very thankfully. Just so you know I'm very eager to have this deformity removed from my arm and I expect you to be on your way down to my office as fast as you finish this letter. If it takes you longer than a half hour I will under no circumstances care about my own pride and will head up to your dorms where all of your friends will be witness to what you're able to do and will ask a million questions on how you found out. I don't really care; I might question you but better me than your friends, correct? You have a half hour.**

** Professor Snape**

Harry looked up at his friends. None of them were paying attention as they were all discussing homework. Bonnie wasn't going to acknowledge him for at least an hour. He quietly stood up from his seat, grabbed his three books and silently slipped out of the room.

His two guards followed him down to the dungeons but he asked them to stand outside as he knocked on the door. They silently nodded as Snape opened his door and pulled Harry in.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked quickly as Harry set his books down.

"Um, just roll up your sleeve so I can see the mark," Harry said, opening to the right page. Snape quickly obliged and rolled it up to his elbow. Harry skimmed the page real quick. "Um, it might hurt a bit more than Draco's had while it's being removed because you've had yours longer."

"That's fine, just remove it. I've been waiting for this since the day the thing was put on my arm."

"Well that's good. If you had actually wanted to keep it I wouldn't be able to get it off," Harry said. He turned to Severus who was already holding out his arm. Harry started and placed two fingers within the eyes of the skull then began reading from the book in parselmouth. Snape gripped his other hand in a fist as the pain came but he kept himself from making any sounds. Harry finished a second later and removed his fingers. Snape looked down at his now clear, pale arm. He ran his other hand over it as Harry closed his book again.

"Thank you for this Potter," Snape said quietly, falling into a chair near the desk as he stared at his arm in amassment.

"It's not a problem sir. I killed off your favorite house; this is the least I can do to make up for what I've done. Besides, you had your reasons for doing what you did and if you hadn't been a part of this war I don't know if we would have succeeded. You deserve a second chance just as much as anyone else does, maybe more. I'm just making sure everyone gets what they deserve."

"Potter, my students were death eaters. I know it, you know it. There's no reason for you to have to make it up to anyone for doing your job and stopping them the only way you could."

"I still think there could have been another way. But that's my opinion. I'm glad I could help you professor. I hope you finally get the chance to move on with your life." Harry headed to the door. "Maybe you could even go find a girlfriend." Harry thought he was going to get points taken away for that but as he was shutting the door he swore he saw Snape smile.

When he got back to the commons everyone seemed to still be entranced with their work so Harry put his books back in his room and then sat on the couch downstairs watching Bonnie by the fire. She didn't seem as upset as before but she hadn't acknowledged him yet either. After an hour had passed, everyone left to the Gryffindor commons or to their own room. Bonnie stayed sitting by the fire with a book and her notes and some potion ingredients.

Harry stood from the couch and went to sit down in front of her. She pretended not to notice. "So what does Snape have you whipping up for him?" Harry asked calmly.

"Why don't you write him a letter and ask him?" Bonnie said coldly.

"Because I have you."

"Why should I tell you anything? I'm more out of the loop than your therapist."

Harry sighed looked at the floor. "Pet, you—"

"I know, I know. Don't ask, you won't tell," she mocked. "You'll tell me when it's appropriate. It's none of my business to know what you do because sometimes I'm just a follower and I should leave you to your work. But even Fish didn't know what you were doing with Draco Malfoy and he knows everything. And Snape? You hate the man. You threatened to remove parts of Malfoy's body and now you're _hanging out_ with him? I'm just worried."

Harry waited a moment to be sure she was finished. "First of all, Malfoy and I are not, "_hanging out_." Second of all, you are not _just_ a follower to me. I love you. Nothing in the world could change that. You could send for divorce papers and try to assassinate me and I'd still love you. You should at least know that. Also, no, Fish does not know. But you can trust me that it's not bad, it's just not good either and I'm a little embarrassed and ashamed to tell you. There's no need to worry."

Bonnie lowered her head ashamed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm glad you're worried. It shows you care. But you don't have to be. You can trust me not to do anything dangerous can't you?"

"Sometimes."

Harry smiled and reached over to stroke her cheek. He slowly dropped his hand and let her get back to work. "So what are you working on?"

"It's a surprise." She looked up to see how unconvinced he looked. "Really. I can't tell you. You'll find out over break when it's finished."

"How unfair. I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours," he tempted her.

Bonnie looked up. "_The _secret?"

"A recent one," he clarified, smiling at how excited she was and then her disappointment.

"Oh. Then no."

"Why not?"

"I told you. It's a surprise. And you'll be too happy if I tell you. It'll throw everyone off or ruin the surprise if you keep smiling, especially around my grandmother. People will know something is going on. Or they'll send you to the hospital."

Harry sighed. "You wanna go to bed yet?" he asked, giving up.

"Few more minutes," she said, writing something in her notes.

"Are you sure you won't come right now?"

"If you keep talking it'll take longer. Go up on your own. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Harry sighed. "Alright, don't stay up too late," he said, knowing she would be longer than a few minutes. He kissed her gently good night, and with a last stroke of her hair, headed up to their room.

/-

Harry woke up the next morning to find that Bonnie wasn't beside him. He hadn't gone to sleep with her and he hadn't woken up with her. He had to wonder whether she had slept at all. He got ready and headed down to the commons to see Bonnie sitting by the empty fireplace working on her potion. She was wearing a new outfit, a sign that she had slept and changed.

Harry quietly came down the stairs. "You did go to bed didn't you?" he asked, making her eyes shoot up at him but then back down at her cauldron.

"I slept for a few hours. But I had to wake myself up again before I got too comfortable. You know how good of a pillow you make," she said, flipping a page of her notes.

"You're going to breakfast aren't you?" Harry asked, sitting on the couch and looking toward Hermione's door as she was usually up at this hour.

"Of course. I just need to finish up a few things before I let it settle. Then I have to put a protective spell on it so it can be packed for the train ride and the ride to the limo and up to my room. By the way, we're definitely not sharing a room this year."

"What! Why?"

"Because! my grandmother will be there. She's very traditional. If she did agree with our marriage she'd have insisted that we marry three days after you proposed and not see each other till the wedding. Not to mention I'll have a mantra of cousins in the house watching our every move for her. And my grandfather, though I'm sure he'd let you do what you want. The men in my family are so sure you're as pure as you are but the women are just so touchy."

"I'm very excited to see your grandfather. I haven't seen him in so long."

Bonnie added one last thing to her potion and then put a spell over it letting it simmer but protecting it from damage and it would freeze when it was finished simmering. "Alright, we can go to breakfast."

"What about Ron and Hermione?"

"They usually meet us down there."

"Since when?"

"Since you started meeting us down there. And now every time they come down Fish smiles a lot at Ron in that really creepy "I know something" kind of way. I don't know what it is because they both look totally normal to me."

"Fish likes to think he sees things and sometimes he makes things up just for fun. You can never count on his looks."

"No matter, let's go to breakfast."

They went down to the Great Hall and sat down in their normal seats. Harry found a small note set in front of him addressed to him. He picked it up and unfolded it. It read:

**.**

**Thank you for the gift. I thought it only proper to give you something in return. Swallow the whole thing, you'll see the difference.**

.

Harry looked down at the table and there in a little tube was a clear liquid. He picked it up and uncorked the top and sniffed it. He turned to Bonnie questioningly who just shrugged. Harry dumped it into his mouth just as his other friends were entering the hall.

"What's that?" Fish asked.

"I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait a second to find out." He waited a few seconds and slowly things began to get blurry, like he was without his glasses. "I think I've gone blind."

He could hear Bonnie's smile in her voice. "Try taking out your contacts."

Harry questioned her motives as that would only make it even harder to see but as he took them out gently he realized with startling accuracy that he could see, without contacts and without glasses and he could see better then he ever had in his life.

"I think I've been cured," he mumbled.

"I think that's a good guess," Bonnie laughed.

"I can see. Well. I can see little details," he said, holding up Bonnie's hand. "I have great taste in jewelry," he boasted, seeing the shine of the ring more clearly than ever. He could see the extravagant shine in Bonnie's blonde hair. He stroked his fingers through it. He suddenly sighed sadly. "I'll be able to see your grandmother's horribly disgusted face better than ever."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Who is it from?" she asked, fingering the small note, wondering if she could read it. Harry took it from her fingers and slipped it into his pocket.

"It's no one. Just a thank you gift from someone."

"So why can't she read it?" Ron asked.

"No reason." Harry took out the note, inconspicuously sliding his finger over the writing so Bonnie wouldn't recognize whose it was. Being his apprentice she was bound to recognize his writing.

She read it over quickly and handed it back to him. "So your eyes are fixed now? No more contacts or glasses or anything?"

"Nope. That's so nice as now, again, I only have one handicap."

"Wouldn't you be down to two now," said Draco as he passed them on the way to the Slytherin table. "Don't forget your mental handicap," he laughed. Blaise laughed to. Luna poked him in the side.

Harry smiled. Draco was paying him back in giving him evil and rude comments just to make everything seem normal. All was right in the world at this moment.

"Harry, you should eat. We have to get on the train in a few hours and we still have to pack," Hermione said.

"Oh yeah. Ron your parents aren't coming right?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. They're spending Christmas with Charlie's new girlfriend's family. I guess it's serious. I haven't even met her yet."

"You'll have much more fun with us Ron," Fish said. "You'll get to meet Bonnie's grandfather. He's really awesome. Nothing like his wife. And you'll get to watch Grandmama Evil make hateful comments toward Harry and Mr. McNeal trying to defend him. It's loads of fun to watch."

"Thank you for taking so much joy in my pain," Harry said sarcastically.

After finishing their breakfast they all headed up to their dorms and started packing up their things for the trip ahead. Harry made sure to pack up some of the books he had taken from Voldemort into his trunk so he could read over them during vacation. Then they all gathered their things and headed with the rest of the school toward King's Cross Station.


	41. Meeting the Cousins

AN: Bonnie's grandmother will be, throughout most of the chapter and a few others, Mrs. Mrs. McNeal, because I don't feel like writing Grandmamma McNeal or Grandmama Evil so many times and I needed something for Harry to call her and we can't call her Mrs. McNeal cause that's what we call Bonnie's mother. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

Thanks to dude for the nice review. I really appreciate your feedback.

.

Chapter 40

Meeting the Cousins

.

Harry winced at the sound and held his hands over Bonnie's ears. They were trapped inside their car at the _private_ airport. The fans and reporters had forced their way inside the entrance. Security was not enough for a mob of what Harry guessed was thousands. The screams and yelling was so loud it was almost painful, hence Harry covering Bonnie's ears. (No doubt more than the Beetles received.) Not to mention the profanity some of the girls were screaming through the windows. Ginny had put up a charm up so that they couldn't see the fans trying to stare at them and the fans couldn't see them at all.

In the limo behind them were all the adults, who, even if they could get out of the car, wouldn't be able to get to their's. They'd been sitting there for a half hour and were currently waiting for aurors to get the crowd to settle down and move away.

"Have they settled down yet?" Bonnie tried to yell over the muffled screams.

Harry shook his head.

Bonnie sighed and laid her head against Harry, muffling some of the sound with his chest as she covered her other ear with his hand. It was getting dark but the reporters and fans were persistent to see Harry up close. And from the screams they could hear that wasn't all they wanted to do. They were lucky some one was smart enough to put a strong charm on the trunk of the limo otherwise their stuff would most likely be strewn across the field right this moment.

The group sunk into their seats as they felt someone crawl onto the roof of the car and three other people followed and started pounding on the ceiling.

"This is getting really scary," Ginny said, pulling up her feet and curling into Fish's side, who quickly wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

"The aurors will get to us soon," Harry said, pulling Bonnie closer to him. "Just don't listen to them." He kissed Bonnie's hair and rested his cheek on her head.

He winced and Ginny jumped as one of the girls on the roof banged roughly on the sunroof. "Sir Potter!" someone screamed through the roof. "I want Sir Potter," another whined through the roof.

Bonnie wrapped her arms around Harry possessively, snuggling deeper into his coat.

A few minutes more of screaming and suddenly it began to calm, becoming more muffled and Harry guessed people were finally being pulled away. There was clawing at the roof and girls were screaming that they wanted to stay. There were a few flashes of light and then their door opened.

Kingsley Shacklebolt kneeled down by their door, panting. "You have got some really crazy fans Harry," Kingsley sighed.

"I know," Harry sighed.

It was then that Kingsley noticed how everyone was sitting so close together and all the girls were curled up in their boyfriend's coats, trying to gain comfort. "Are you guys alright?"

"Fine," Harry answered. "We just wanna get going."

Kingsley nodded. "Come on."

Harry's guards got out first and stood at the door. Fish then climbed out after them and pulled Ginny along with him, still holding her close. Harry got out after her, helping Bonnie out and Ron and Hermione after them, all standing close together.

Most of the fans had left willingly, as most were gone, but others were lying on the ground unconscious, stunned.

"Come along. Your plane is all ready. The aurors will grab your things."

Their parents were coming running up to them worriedly. "Are you all okay?" James asked as Lily quickly looked them all over to make sure they weren't hurt.

"We're fine. Just tired," Harry said. "Can we just get going?"

"Of course dear," Lily said. "Let's all get on the plane. If we leave now we can get to France by two a.m."

"There won't be more mobs there too, will there?" Ginny asked nervously.

"No," Kingsley informed. "We've sent people there ahead of us to make sure it's all clear when you land. There will be no mobbing fans there," he assured her.

"Good. I've had enough of that for one night," Bonnie sighed as Harry led her toward the plane.

/-

Once all on the plane the aurors packed their things into the undercarriage and everyone found their seats on the plane like they had last year. Harry sat down and pulled Bonnie down into hers. She made herself comfortable in her seat as Harry removed the arm rest between them before snuggling in close to him, closing her eyes.

"Comfy?" Harry asked.

"Very."

Harry held her close and nuzzled her hair as he too passed out from stress of the day past.

/-

"What happened?"

"Don't talk so loud mother, you'll wake them up. You can put them up in their rooms; you remember where they are, don't you? I'll show the rest of you where the other six sleep."

Harry couldn't gain the strength to open his eyes. His head was still rushing with the screams of his fans and he felt dizzy, like he was floating. And he had the strange suspicion that if he opened his eyes this moment he would find himself being carried. He knew he was moving and he wasn't using his legs. Suddenly a very important thought came to mind.

"Where's Bonnie?" Harry mumbled, still immobile and his eyes still closed.

"Her father's carrying her," his father said, obviously the one carrying him. "I suspect it was you who put that charm on her ring."

Harry didn't respond and only turned his head to lie on his father's chest.

/-

Harry woke up in his bed, late the next morning, curled up around Bonnie, who he was sure would have been put in her own bed by her father instead of his. Bonnie must have left hers at some point and crawled into his while he was asleep. Sighing in content he wrapped his arms more tightly around Bonnie's waist and nuzzled her shoulder. They were both still in the outfits they had been in on the plane. Bonnie in black tights and a short red dress that she had earlier been wearing with a thick black belt, Harry in all black as usual, tight pants and a black 'The Who' T-shirt. Only their shoes and his jacket were changed.

He leaned over her and looked over at a clock on night stand. It was almost twelve a.m. Everyone was probably downstairs for lunch now. He looked down at Bonnie. She was in a comfortable deep sleep in his arms and he would hate to wake her, or go downstairs without her. If he had to see her grandmother this morning he'd like her to be there. Though he had to wonder how rude the woman would be with his father and mother there. She had been rude when coming over for tea but she could be much worse. Especially when she got him on his own, the few times that had happened.

So instead of heading down to lunch to face the hell that was to come, he snuggled back down in the sheets and curled up with his fiancé.

Several minutes later Bonnie turned over to face him and looked up at his eyes. "Morning," she smiled, it was strained.

"Morning," he smiled, stroking her hair. "Have a headache?"

"Oh, it's gone now. But we'll never go through that again. Next time we cross the country we'll make month's in advance notice to the apparition board."

"We should have thought of that. But then we couldn't have gone through the fun of getting on a plane. And we all need the time to rest before coming in contact with your grandmother."

Bonnie smiled and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and rested her head on his chest. "We should probably go down soon."

"I don't want to spend vacation with your grandmother. Do you know if your grandfather is here yet?"

"I guess he would be."

Harry sighed. "We should get down there. If the others got up before us they're sitting downstairs alone with our parents."

Bonnie giggled. "Fish likes your dad and godfather. They'll start the discussion."

"You're grandmother will love that."

"Yes, she doesn't like _Jonathan_, doesn't she?"

It was quiet. "Yeah we've gotta get down there," Harry said, pulling away and climbing out of bed. Bonnie groaned but crawled out after him.

"I'll go get dressed and meet you in the hallway," she said, kissing him quickly before leaving.

Harry quickly showered and brushed his teeth and changed his clothes, before meeting Bonnie in the hallway. "Lead me to my death darling," he said, holding out his arm for hers.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and took his arm as they headed downstairs. Everyone was already downstairs, including their friends who were avoiding the adults and keeping each other entertained. "Morning," Harry greeted.

"Have a nice sleep?" James asked.

"It was fine," Harry said, sitting down beside him and putting his cane on the arm of the chair. He turned to look down the table at Mr. McNeal, so unlike his wife. Unlike Mrs. Mrs. McNeal (Grandmama Evil), Mr. McNeal had no problem looking plain, though he refused to let gray hair grow in. Instead he had it regularly died black with magic every time he found one. He looked young, around forty-five, when in reality he was somewhere around sixty-five. He was a hunter and a war veteran (not this war), he owned five hundred different types of guns and he, like Mr. Price, had no problem with Harry marrying his granddaughter.

Bonnie's grandparents seemed to be stuck in their forties or fifties, ever since Harry had first met them, and they didn't age. Harry, when he was younger, guessed it was botox or other muggle forms of de-aging surgery. He found out later that it was a form of de-aging potion or spell you can get at St. Mungo's once a year. He knew he had to look it up at Hogwarts after he found out Bonnie's family was made up of wizards and witches. The potion wouldn't keep you from actually aging; just give the appearance that you weren't.

"We meet again _Sir _Potter," he smiled.

"So it seems Sir McNeal," Harry replied. There was a bit of silence between them and Bonnie was glaring between the both of them. Harry usually paid more attention to her grandfather than of her when he visited and she didn't expect anything different just because they were engaged. Harry turned back to Mr. McNeal. "I punched out President Bush, did you read?"

"I did. And found a noble way to punch out the president you did. I believe you're a first. When I punched out my first president I told the press that he ate my crackers. It was the only thing I could think of at the moment."

"Well it wasn't a very happy conversation but I did feel very satisfied afterward. I've met some other presidents but they're all pretty nice guys. You know the Russians are not as bad as they seem. I had a very nice conversation with Russian President Putin. He is a very polite man, unlike how you described him."

"Well back then Russia was a communist country. No one was nice."

Jackeline interrupted their conversation with a loud cough. They both turned to her. "Could you save the political discussions for dinner? It's not polite conversation for the lunch table to be discussing how much you dislike certain politicians."

"Sorry," they both mumbled together.

Bonnie changed the subject and turned to her grandmother. "Where are my cousins? I thought they'd be here by now."

"Oh, probably sleeping in," Mrs. Mrs. McNeal said.

"Who's here?"

"I'll introduce everyone when they're down here," she said.

"How many cousins do you have?" Harry asked her quietly, leaning in.

"I'm not sure. I think she makes them up sometimes."

Harry laughed as they all turned back to their lunch.

A few minutes later a stomping of tired feet came down the stairs. "It must be the Von Trapp family," Harry whispered to Fish.

Bonnie nudged his arm as the group came downstairs. Two girls and three boys stepped off the stairs tiredly and into the dining room. They all looked somewhat like Bonnie so they were obviously related. One boy had brown hair and one of the girls had her hair highlighted with a strawberry blonde. But their facial features and the other's hair was alike. One girl was, as many celebrities were these days, orange. Harry leaned over to Bonnie. "Pet, your cousin looks like she ate one too many carrots."

"It's a fake tanner. Don't say anything," she whispered back.

Harry was put out at her telling him to do something but didn't say anything. Fish took notice.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet the other McNeal's," Mrs. Mrs. McNeal said, standing to introduce them. "This is Ally," she said, introducing the strawberry blonde with long hair pulled back in a perfect pony tail and bangs, "and Isabelle," she said, motioning to blonde who had a large side bang. Both girls smiled like perfect ladies with a small curtsey in their required dresses, which were white and designer. "And the boys are Paris," she said, smiling to the boy with brown hair that was swished to the side like a model and the perfect face, "Jacob," was the other blonde, looking very simple with a slight frown to his bone structure, unlike the others. "And my favorite, Jacobie," she said, pulling him into a hug from the side. He smiled fallaciously at everyone, displaying his perfect white teeth. He was blonde and had the same perfect skin that Bonnie did though perfectly tanned and dressed with light colors. It was obvious he was rich as he displayed it widely with the expensive watch on his wrist and designer clothes on a perfect—very expensive—body. Obviously made grandmamma very happy and she reached deep in her pockets to make him just as happy.

Everyone greeted them politely. Harry stayed quiet just as Bonnie told him to, trying to mock her, frowning as he did so. But she wasn't paying attention to him as she was too busy smiling at her cousins, Jacobie unparticular. Harry turned to her and glared at the side of her head. She turned to him when she felt him staring. "What?"

Harry turned away and sunk into his seat. Fish patted his shoulder but he swatted his hand away. The cousins sat down randomly along the table in the open seats. Jacobie took the seat across the table from Bonnie and smiled across at her. Bonnie smiled back. Harry glared darkly across the table at him. Jacobie noticed and quickly looked down at his breakfast as it was set in front of him.

"Harry."

Harry looked up at Mr. McNeal. "After breakfast would you like to join me in the backyard for skeet shooting? I brought a plethora of guns."

"I'd love to." He turned to glare at Jacobie again.

"The other boys are welcome to join us to," Mr. McNeal offered. "I heard Jacobie is very good with a gun."

"Oh, I'm only a rank two in the local gun club," he said, with an entirely (rich, aristocratic) Irish accent, as though being modest, smiling to everyone.

"Oh, well then you must really suck," Harry said, sounding completely serious. They all looked at him. "What? He said local."

"Well the club is a group of two hundred," Jacobie said. "It's probably not great compared to you. I heard you're awesome with a gun."

Harry was silent. Anything he said to reply would make him feel stupid. He had a bad feeling about this cousin and it wasn't just the odd eyes he was sending Bonnie or how obviously nice he was trying to be.

"Well," Mr. McNeal said, noticing Harry's glare, "Perhaps if all you boys are finished with lunch we should head outside." He stood up and motioned for the others to follow. Harry stood up with Fish and grabbed his cane off the arm of his chair.

"You carry a cane?" Jacobie asked as they all headed out of the dining room.

"Don't… talk about my cane," Harry said tersely.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were so sensitive about it," he smiled

"I'm not—" he took a deep breath, "—don't talk to me."

"Sorry."

Fish came up beside him. "Are you okay?"

"I want to kill him."

Fish looked confused. "Why? He seems nice to me."

"Are you kidding? Didn't you see the looks he was giving Bonnie? And his whole, 'I'm-my-grandmum's-favorite-because-I'm-perfect' act is so fake."

"I think you're a little paranoid."

"You're supposed to be on my side."

"Harry we just met the guy. I wasn't aware anyone had time to take sides. And I am always on your side."

Harry turned to him. "That should have been your first answer."

Fish sighed as Harry walked ahead of him. Ron came up beside him. "What's up with Harry?"

"I don't know. I think all the crazy fans are getting to him. He needs sleep." Fish himself sounded a little tired.

Harry walked up to the gun shelf in the gun display room. It was usually a parlor but while Mr. McNeal was staying it was a gun display room. Harry walked over to one of the large twenty-three magnum guns, sitting on the floor and flicking it open to check the barrel.

"You know I have new guns Harry," Mr. McNeal pointed out, standing beside a stand of finely polished short guns.

"I like the big guns," Harry said, running his finger over the silver along the black.

"Of course. How silly of me. Pistols are too easy to shoot," he said, picking one up. "But I'm getting old, even if I don't look it."

"You could shoot a rifle if you wanted to."

"That's alright. I'll leave it to you." He handed Harry a box of ammunition before loading his own gun and they all made their way outside. When outside on the lawn, where there was a range of two-hundred yards of perfectly trimmed grass, they were greeted by Gerry, the man who was going to launch their targets for them. "Why don't we let Harry have the first shoot? To get some of his anger out."

"Oh I'm fine. I think, Jacobie—was it—should go first. I'll show Ron how to hold his gun while he goes."

Mr. McNeal shrugged and Jacobie walked over to position himself to make his shots and Ron sat down on the ground beside Harry.

"Mate, are you okay? You seem kind of tense?" Ron asked.

"I'm fine." Harry said, loading his gun. He turned to Ron. "Do you think that guy seems suspicious? You'd tell me if I'm just being paranoid or if you just really didn't want to tell me that he's going to be trying to flirt with my fiancé all vacation right?"

Ron paused to absorb the question. "Um, I think it's too early to tell Harry. I mean, Bonnie would never flirt with someone who wasn't you right? And they are cousins. It was all just a friendly greeting. When they start giggling at each other and blushing that's when I'll give you every right to beat the crap out of him."

"Will you help keep the gun out of my hand?"

"Um… sure. If it comes to that."

/-

"Hey Bonnie, what's up with your cousins?" Ginny whispered as her, Hermione and Bonnie sat on one couch on one side of the lounge. Bonnie's two dim-witted cousins sat across from them, flipping their hair, knees pointed toward each other, high-heeled, pink, Barbie shoe clad feet, crossed at the ankle like trained dainty ladies; their hand gestures matching their conversations. All that the girls across the room could catch was, "_Oh my god,_" "like," and "that would look totally fetch."

"What do you mean? They're like, totally normal, ya know?" Bonnie giggled, mockingly throwing her hand out.

Ginny giggled. "Where did you come from? How did you end up like you and they're…" The three of them looked at the two giggly blondes across the room.

"Well, lucky for me I blocked out my five years at Beuxbatons. And while they were all at charm school drinking tea and learning how to sit and laugh and cry, I was learning to fight and was rolling around in dirt with Harry." She smiled. "He saved me from having orange skin and Barbie heels."

"You really owe him," Hermione laughed.

"Bonevilla!"

The three turned as the two Barbie's looked at them. "Bonnie," Ally, the strawberry blonde said, "dear. You haven't introduced us to your new friends you know?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. This is Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger," Bonnie introduced.

"It's lovely to meet you," Isabelle said.

"It's nice to meet the both of you to," Hermione smiled as the two girls came closer, having a house elf magically charm the chaise closer to the other girls.

"Oh, Bonnie, me and Isabelle were just wondering," Ally said, "when you're getting married, is your wedding dress going to be black to?" They both turned to each other and giggled behind their hands as though they'd just said the funniest joke.

Bonnie smiled fallaciously. "I'm going to get a white dress actually. In fact, despite his complete dislike of the color white, Harry said he would prefer me in a white dress. I guess to symbolize purity."

"That's creepy," Isabelle said. "He's so obsessive about you. I mean, you can't even wear the clothes that you want."

"I can—"

"You can't. I remember when we were little Grandmama always used to buy you those beautiful Erin Fetherston dresses. They were white and beautiful and you wore them with your white Monolo's. Now all you wear are these depressing black outfits. Like you're going to a funeral."

"Yeah, and I used to dress like I was going to my own baptism. Who wears white everyday?"

"You. Except when you wore yellow and pink."

"So you actually dressed like that?" Ginny asked. "You were all fancy and all?"

"Yes. I was. It wasn't too bad when I wasn't aware of how bright and colorful I was."

"What are you talking about? You were beautiful. And if you had just dressed like that at school with us we wouldn't have had to avoid you so much. I mean, we couldn't exactly talk to you. You looked like a blonde Goth. Like that one muggle singer, what…Cyndi Lauper."

"Cyndi Lauper was not Goth. You don't even know—"

"_Whatever_," Ally said. "The point is that you've changed. We think we should bring you back."

"Like what? Give me pink shoes?"

"No. See how Harry reacts to you wearing a beautiful, frilly, dress with lace. It's cute I promise. But it's pink."

"I'm not going to let you dress me up. I happen to like my clothes thank you."

"You only like them because they'll keep you Harry. But if he leaves you for wearing fashionable bright colors what good is he anyway? Besides, have you seen Jacobie? He sure has changed since we were little," Ally smiled. Both girls giggled and blushed.

"He's our cousin."

"Second cousin, Bonnie. Grandmama arranged for you to marry him, don't you remember?"

"_No_."

"Yeah. And back then I would have said no way to, but. God, he's so cute."

"Well, I don't care about him. I'm already engaged, there's nothing Grandmama can do."

"Well, I don't know about _that_."

"Besides," Isabelle said, "Harry may have saved the world but he's all weird. I swear I thought he was going to jump across the table and beat Jacobie up just for looking at you."

"That would have been hot," Bonnie smiled.

"Bonnie! Jacobie's nice and sensitive. And he has a body. And Grandmama approves. And he's, like, so perfect."

"Harry can be sensitive," Bonnie said. "And he has a body."

"An anorexic looking one," Ally giggled.

"That's not true. He may look skinny but he has a great body from years of running and fighting and playing with swords. I bet Jacobie goes to a gym with a personal trainer while spraying anti-sweat spells. Personally, that's not hot to me." She turned to Hermione and Ginny, smiling playfully and girlishly. "And he's been looking really hot these days, I notice when he changes in the morning, but he says he's just been sleeping more."

Ginny gave her a smile and shrugged.

"Yeah, but he carries a cane. Like some old man," Isabelle commented.

"Uh uh. So he carries a cane. I think it's endearing. He hardly ever shows weakness and though he tries to hide it that's kind of hard. And it's not like he's going to carry it forever."

"That's beside the point. I mean, sure, he's Harry Potter and he is kind of cute but..." Ally took one of Bonnie's hands between both of hers. "We just want the best for you Bon Bon. And if you leave Harry and marry Jacobie instead, we can all be friends again. You being a half-blood won't matter if you marry Jacobie."

"Are you serious or are you both on drugs?" Bonnie asked, sounding completely serious.

"Don't you want to be friends again? We can go shopping."

"Oh, okay! Well if we're gonna go _shopping_. I'll just go tell Harry the wedding is off and grab my purse okay?" she said in her best "hyper" tone.

"Are you mocking us?" Isabelle asked.

"No, of course not. I, like, totally want to leave my perfect guy so I can go shopping with you two and have you call me Bon Bon. That's exactly what I want."

Ally made a sour face and went to sit across the room, getting that Bonnie was being rude. Isabelle gave Bonnie one last look of shame before following Ally over to a chair by the window and starting to talk, but more quietly, less energetically, and while giving short, hateful glances toward "Bon Bon."

Ginny turned to Bonnie. "Hey Bonnie, how come your grandfather didn't invite you outside with the boys? I thought you liked guns—"

Bonnie quickly slapped her hand over Ginny's mouth to stop her as her grandmother turned to look at them. The three of them had even forgotten the other women were in the lounge with them. They had all been talking so quietly anyway and her grandmother was in a, apparently, thrilling conversation with a friend of hers that she had invited over. She looked young but was in her late sixties.

"What was that about guns Bonevilla?"

"Oh, Ginny was just asking me about the tradition of men and women roles in our family. I was only explaining grandmamma."

Her grandmother smiled and turned back to her conversation.

Bonnie turned back to Ginny and removed her hand and spoke quietly and delicately to both girls. "My family is very proper. Most girls are shipped off to charm school when they're four years old and are taught to hold glasses and how to use different tones for house elves and your maids. My father wouldn't let me but he did let grandmamma teach me herself. Before I left for Britain. When you're little you learn all the special traditions of the family. Including the differences between the men and woman."

"Like how you can't wear pants?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, like that. We can't wear pants, we can't work guns, and we're definitely not supposed to fight in wars. Some of our family rules are some of the main reasons grandmamma hates Harry so much. Like the rule that men are supposed to look like men. Harry's a very pretty boy and grandmamma doesn't like that about him. Girls are supposed to dress like girls in fancy dresses and keep your hair long and wear makeup. Though Harry doesn't like me to wear makeup, I make sure to make it look like I am around my grandmother. And boys are supposed to be muscular and dress fashionably but only in a way that makes it look like the woman of the house set out their clothes that morning. My grandfather doesn't live with my grandmother anymore so he has a "High Maid" in his home that holds the position of the woman. Men hold the high position in McNeal households though I'm sure that's not a problem for Harry. It's all very proper and we're not allowed to disobey family rules or we're a disgrace. If you make that mistake usually you keep it to yourself. Mine was displayed to the world but luckily I'm my grandmother's favorite and so she rectified my name."

"Can someone else rectify your name?"

"No, only the highest member of the family. That's why I like to stay in her good graces. If she had liked Harry at all, even the tiniest bit, he would have had to go see her to ask for permission to marry me. But since she doesn't it's always proper to ask the father—course he also could have asked no one but me but that wouldn't have gone over too well with grandmamma. So we're still allowed to be wed but my grandmother doesn't like it."

"And she wants you to marry your cousin Jacobie?"

"I guess. My grandparents have their favorites among their children and grandchildren, just like my grandmother was the favorite of her mother's children and my grandfather was arranged to marry her as he was the favorite of the highest in the family."

"So your grandparents are related?"

"They had the same last name, even before marriage, but they're not too closely related. They track the family tree for marriages. But there are always people at the top of the whole family of McNeals. My grandmother is the top of the food chain right now and when both my grandparents die they'll choose their heir to act as the top of the food chain. If me and Jacobie got married and actually stayed together it would be both of us. If my grandmother still likes me after I marry Harry it'll be me and Harry will be a black sheep."

"Your family is very strict," Hermione commented.

"Yeah, but it's all engrained into your head at a young age. I'm the lucky one. My dad and Harry saved me from a life with Jacobie and a life without Harry."

"I'd hate to be in your family. It's so strict. I'm a pureblood and we have none of these rules," Ginny said.

"Well, my grandmother will probably choose someone to heir after her, other than me. One, because I defied her and married Harry, which is probably why she brought Jacobie with her this vacation I guess. And two, because I'm likely to not have any children, even adopted."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Hermione asked.

"Well, besides the fact that being a woman I should continue the family lineage with my own babies, it's a female trait to bare or take care of the children, which would make it an important rule to have children. What am I going to do at my home if I don't have any children to take care of? "

"Um, have a life?" Bonnie said.

"That's what Harry says."

"So what are we going to do this vacation since your grandmother is here watching your every move?" Hermione asked.

"Um, I don't know. Whatever you want. She won't stop us unless she finds it really inappropriate. Probably anything Harry suggests she'll find inappropriate."

"Can we go outside and watch the boys shoot?" Ginny asked.

Bonnie smiled.

.

Meanwhile, back outside…

.

"Thank god for Snape," Harry mumbled to himself after he shot the disc. It shattered apart but then a few seconds later came back together again.

"Good job Harry," Mr. McNeal said.

Harry smiled and held the gun up to his shoulder again. "PULL!" The disc shot up and Harry shot right at the center and the plate shattered and fell to the ground in pieces without coming back together.

"JIMMY!" Jackeline yelled, seeing him shoot from the lounge. "I told you before not to shoot at the spell. You break another plate and I'm locking up the guns!"

"SORRY!" Harry yelled back at her as she glared from the window. He could actually see the color of her eyes from this far away and it made him very excited. He'd never been able to see that well. He was sure his glasses had never been prescribed for him and contacts, magic or muggle, were not nearly as good as having your 20/20 vision.

He turned his eyes toward Jacobie and noticed he looked a little shocked that Harry had hit the spell. To do that you had to be very precise. Harry had learned to do it when he was twelve from a book about muggle guns and wizard spells. That was where he had learned about the killing curse being stopped by a bullet, he wasn't sure how they found out but it was interesting. He shot again but then let Ron take his tries.

He went over to the grass and sat down beside Fish with his gun. Fish turned to him and nodded toward the house. Harry turned to see Bonnie, Ginny, and Hermione heading outside with Bonnie's two cousins following, unwillingly, behind them. Two maids and a butler came out with a large blanket to spread out on the grass and were followed with a tray of tea and chocolates, which Bonnie's cousins served to each other first. Obviously, they were the ones to request the blanket and treats, not imagining an evening outside without something to keep them occupied.

Harry stood up and headed over to them, walking with as little limp as he could. Bonnie kept smiling deviously at him as he held his gun behind his back, like Mr. McNeal said a proper gentleman would do (back when he cared what his wife thought).

"I thought your grandmother wouldn't let you _near_ the guns?" Harry asked, stepping toward her.

"Oh well I told her we were only going out to watch," she informed him as he kneeled down in front of her. "I could never pick up a gun for fear of getting my hands dirty with gun powder. And I said it all in a sweet and sugary voice so she gave in."

"Oh, you wanted to watch the men play with their guns? It's quite boring."

"It would be more fun if I could shoot but I'm going to explain gun control to the girls while we watch Ron try to aim with something other than a wand."

Harry laughed and then leaned forward to place a light kiss on her lips. He pulled away as she smiled.

"Aww, aren't you both such a cute couple?"

Bonnie saw the quick change in Harry's expression as she was still so close to his face. He lifted his eyes, annoyed, toward the sky and sighed angrily. He suddenly turned around quickly with his gun raised and pointed it straight at Jacobie just as the boy finished his next sentence, "I wasn't aware you were so sensitive Harry."

Jacobie's expression quickly changed to fear but he masked it and smiled. "You're too nice of a guy to shoot one of your soon-to-be family members," he said joyously.

Harry pulled down the safety lock. "Would you like to find out?" he asked menacingly, glaring daggers at him.

"Harry, put the gun down," Bonnie said, standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're not going shoot anybody."

"Why? I could hit him; he's standing right in front of me?" Harry smiled at her.

Jacobie smiled seeing Harry was just joking but Harry scowled at him again when he saw him smiling.

"I know you could but he's my family and you're not shooting my relatives."

Harry groaned but put the safety back on and lowered his gun.

"There's a good man," Jacobie smiled.

"You keep smiling at me and I'll _hit_ you with the bloody gun." Harry turned around to kiss Bonnie's lips once more before walking away, back toward Fish who was trying to help Ron by shouting at him from the ground.

Jacobie turned to Bonnie. "Your boyfriend's a little touchy."

"Fiancé," she corrected him offensively, before turning around and sitting back down with her friends on the blanket the maids set out for them.

Jacobie kneeled down on the grass with his own gun behind his back. "You look very nice today. I remember the last time I saw you we were, what was it, seven years old? Right before you left for England. You definitely didn't wear black then."

"Why does everyone have to comment on my clothes? I cured cancer while wearing a black dress you know? Well, actually it was dark blue but it makes the same point." Jacobie laughed though she hadn't meant to amuse him.

"I'm sorry. I heard about your cure for cancer. That is wonderful. I saw that show you were on to. Just my chance that my mum was watching it and you were on."

"Of course, cause men don't watch talk shows," she said.

"No, we are far too manly for that. We would rather watch wrestling. It gets us in the mood to go chop wood," he said, as though he was very masculine.

"Chop wood? Isn't that what spells are for? Or house elves?"

"I was using it as a metaphor," Jacobie explained. He smiled sweetly. "I missed you. Between you and me," he whispered, eyeing Isabelle and Ally, "you were always my favorite cousin."

"Well thanks. But it's really not nice to do that."

"Oh, they don't know. They're too stuck on their makeup to care whether I like them or not." Bonnie didn't reply so Jacobie continued. "Did you miss me?"

Bonnie laughed. "I was seven. I missed my house."

"Did you think about me while you were gone?"

"Jacobie, you're my cousin!"

"Is that a yes then?"

"To be entirely truthful no, I didn't think about you. I was a bit busy thinking about other things. I've not thought about you since grandmamma wrote to me and told me she was bringing my cousins."

Jacobie looked disappointed. "Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense. You've had a very exciting life so far haven't you?"

"I have. I'm sorry if I offended you."

"No, it's fine. We were only seven as you said." He looked up and smiled at her. "We should get to know each other better while I'm here, shouldn't we? You'll be married soon and who knows the next time we'll see each other."

Bonnie smiled politely. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

"Brilliant. I should go before Harry takes my shots." He stood up and headed back over to the group of boys.

/-

Dinner was a bit tense while Harry continued to be grumpy and the others at the table tried to take his attention off of his anger toward Jacobie. It didn't help. When dinner was finished the teens headed up to their rooms along with some of the adults who were still suffering from jet lag. The others stayed downstairs to talk.

/-

Bonnie walked into Harry's room as he was pulling on his shirt. His beautiful and muscular chest was showing but, though it distracted her for a few seconds, she was angry again when his shirt was down. He looked up at her as she stayed leaning against the door in her floor length, dark blue robe.

"Hey pet."

"Don't, hey pet, me. What was all that about at dinner?" she asked.

"What was what all about?" Harry asked, pretending to not know what she was talking about.

"You know what I'm talking about. You wouldn't take your eyes off Jacobie. You looked like you wanted to kill him. And earlier when you were pointing that gun at him, I saw the look in your eyes. This isn't Privet Drive Harry. You can't joke around like that. It's not a war. And he's my cousin, why are you being so rude to him?"

"He's your cousin. The one your grandmother wants you to marry instead of me. You don't think I'll be just a little defensive? And I know it's not war and you know I wouldn't shoot your cousin. I'm not crazy Bonnie. I'm not going to go mad and kill your family members."

"You could lay off a little. My grandmother you can hate, she's a horrible person to you."

"She's a horrible person period," Harry mumbled.

"_But_… Jacobie hasn't done anything but be nice to you and from the second he walked down the stairs you've been rude to him. I don't know what you see that makes you think he's someone you have to fight with and be horribly and right out rude to, but I don't see it. I know you're possessive, it's one of the traits I like about you, but you need to calm down a little bit."

"I am calm. And you obviously didn't see the way he was looking at you. And you were giving him flirting looks back if you didn't notice."

"That's ridiculous Harry. I wouldn't flirt with him. I'm getting married to you. I'm happy to get married to you. I don't want anyone else, especially my cousin. And don't you trust me?"

"I do trust you."

"And the ring on my finger is going to stop anyone from getting too close even despite good or bad intentions. So would you stop worrying?"

Harry sighed. He turned to Bonnie and sat down on his bed. "I still don't like him."

"That's fine. But you don't have to be so open about it. Glaring at him throughout the entire dinner is a little much."

Harry didn't look very happy about it but sighed. "Fine," he grunted, throwing himself back onto his bed and turning onto his side.

"Thank you," Bonnie said carefully, walking up to his bed and watching him carefully. "Are you angry with me?"

"...A little."

"I didn't mean to. I just didn't want you acting all crazed and glaring at my cousin all vacation."

"I get it. I don't want to talk about it anymore so let's just go to sleep alright?"

Bonnie looked at him sadly as he pulled the covers up. She went over, pulled off her robe and slid into bed beside him. Gently, she wrapped her arms around his waist, taking one of his hands and pressed her cheek against his back. "I love you St. Jimmy."

Harry took a breath and quietly sighed. "I know." He patted her hand with his other and felt her calm and quietly nuzzle into his back. She tightened her grip around his waist and gripped his hand while breathing him in.

/-

The next morning Bonnie awoke to find herself alone in Harry's bed. There on his pillow was a note.

.

Pet,

I've gone to Madam Pomfrey and Josh early for my appointments. I'll probably be back for lunch. I'm sorry about our fight last night; I'll make it up to you soon.

_Harry_

.

Bonnie sighed and scooted over into Harry's side of the bed and breathed in his scent from where he had been sleeping. She wasn't sure what he was planning to do but it was hardly him who needed to make it up to her. She knew she had started the fight and made him fight with her. He never liked to fight with her; he avoided it whenever he could. An example being her leaving him for Draco Malfoy and him not dragging her away and shoving her into a closet telling her not to disobey him. She'd seen it done with other girls (not get shoved into closets of course) in the group but never to her. No matter what she said, what she did, he never fought with her; just got jealous and angry. But it was in Harry's nature to blame himself for things that he participated in but didn't start.

Bonnie knew she had to do something for him to make it up to him. But she would have to think about it. She was never really sure what he wanted. One of the reasons she thought she would make him a horrible wife. There were probably far more qualified girls or women who would know exactly what he wanted and wouldn't argue with him when everyone knows you're not supposed to fight with Harry Potter.

While pondering over what Harry could possibly be planning for later and her sad thought that he would know what she wanted but she couldn't do the same for him, she headed back to her room to get ready for the day before heading downstairs for breakfast.

"Where's Harry?" James asked.

"At his appointments," Bonnie said simply, still in thought.

"What appointments?" Jacobie asked, nosily.

Half the table glared at him for Harry's benefit as the boy really had no right to ask.

Bonnie turned to Fish and interrupted his glaring. "Give me your phone," she said politely.

Fish turned to her surprised. "You can't order me to hand over my phone."

She pouted, "Please."

Fish eyed her suspiciously. "What's wrong with your phone?"

"I don't have the numbers you do."

Fish pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it in his hand. Bonnie reached for it but Fish pulled it away. "You will not prank phone call the mafia on my phone."

"Fine," she said, grabbing at the phone.

Fish pulled it away again. "You _will not_ make prank phone calls to the mafia."

Bonnie sighed. "I will not make prank phone calls to the mafia."

Fish gave in and handed her his phone.

"Thank you," she said, flipping it open and leaving the table.

"You have the mafia's phone number?" Sirius asked.

"Such delinquents," Mrs. Mrs. McNeal mumbled to herself.

Fish glared at her then turned to Sirius. "They provided guns for our training and the mob bosses grandson became one of Harry's followers. So we always keep their numbers on our phones because they like to see how we're doing from time to time. Bonnie used to take Harry's phone and make prank phone calls to the mafia manor because _she_ thought she was hilarious."

"It was funny," Tim and Tom smiled.

"You three thought everything was funny," Fish said.

"It was funny," Tim and Tom repeated.

Fish rolled his eyes.

/-

Harry came back from his appointments just as he told Bonnie he would but came back in a very bad mood. Instead of joining everyone at lunch he stayed in his room to shower and change and then stayed up there to draw, trying to relax himself. Madam Pomfrey told him his leg wasn't healing the way it was supposed to and he should either stay off it for a few hours each day or she would fetch him a wheel chair. And though he hated sitting helpless with his leg which he used to love and now hated, he would much rather lye in bed for three hours than let himself be put in a wheelchair for any amount of time. And she had been talking about a week but he cut her off at the word.

Unfortunately, despite that he was taking her restrictions to heart it didn't mean he was happy about it. He was silently fuming as he dropped his heavy cane on the floor and threw himself on his bed. He pulled himself back and sat up before summoning his sketch book trying to force his anger out onto his paper.

He was just finishing his third sketch of an evil wheel chair with daggers lining the wheels that was rolling over him when Bonnie creaked open the door and stepped in, leaning against the door as she closed it. "So you are back? Why didn't you come down to lunch?"

"Madam Pomfrey informed me that my leg isn't healing the way she would like it to. So to help it heal faster I'm supposed to stay off of it completely for three hours everyday, besides sleep. If I don't she's going to stick me in a wheel chair." He held up his picture of him being crushed by the evil wheelchair. "And I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen, no matter how much I hate sitting around doing nothing."

Bonnie smiled sadly but crawled onto his bed beside him. "Would you like me to distract you?" she asked, leaning over him and fingering the edge of his shirt.

"I would, but shouldn't you be downstairs entertaining your grandmother and cousins?"

"Oh who cares about them? They can take care of themselves." She leaned down and pressed her lips to his. Harry wrapped an arm around her waist to bring her closer. Bonnie moved her leg over him and straddled his waist. Harry groaned in pleasure as Bonnie leaned down and placed a slow, sensual kiss on Harry's lips. Harry ran his hands into her hair before Bonnie turned to his jaw and then down his neck. After only a few minutes of snogging there was a knock on the door. Bonnie pulled away and they both slowly looked toward the door. They feared the worst. It wouldn't surprise them if Bonnie's grandmother had sent someone up to make sure they didn't get any time to themselves.

"Who is it?" Harry asked.

The door opened and Bonnie quickly jumped off of Harry's lap and he pulled himself up. Trying to look nonchalant she sat down beside Harry on the bed as Jacobie stepped in. Harry sat up straighter as though his territory had been invaded.

"Did you want something?" Harry asked defensively.

"Um…" Jacobie mumbled nervously. "Bonnie, grandmamma was wondering where you were. The women are all going out shopping I guess and she wants you to dress like a lady," he said. "Her words, not mine."

Bonnie turned to Harry to silently question whether he wanted her to stay with him.

"Go ahead. I have some mail to reply to and stuff. Have fun shopping."

Bonnie smiled and placed a light kiss on his lips. "I'll be back later," she said, standing up and heading out the door past Jacobie.

Harry looked over at him. "Get out of my room."

"You know, I think you and I got off on the wrong foot. Maybe we should spend some time getting to know each other or—"

"Get out."

"Okay." He then left, closing the door after him.

Harry sighed and leaned back on his bed and gathered his letters and newspapers and magazines together, taking this as his time to do research on what they were saying about him.


	42. Pizza, Punks and Soda Pop

AN: Yay! Finally I am able to get back in to edit stories and here is the next chapter that I've just been waiting to put up. It's a fun one, in my opinion. Harry goes back to a life of depravity. Enjoy!

And thank you to all of the wonderful reviews I received while I was waiting for the editing bay of my page to work again.

Thanks to QuiteMike, I really appreciated the review. I love to hear it. Its nice to know that people really like the story.

Thanks to michaelc 100, thank you for reviewing.

Thanks to 1world-traveler, sorry about the wait but I hope this chapter was worth it.

.

.

Chapter 41

Pizza, Punks and Soda Pop

After a long few hours outside riding horses and just hanging out—Bonnie's cousins were sitting separate from them by the pool talking about fashion and the latest gossip—before they all headed back inside for dinner as it began to get colder outside. Bonnie's grandmother insisted that the weather bubble around the house give the same weather as it was everywhere else in the country, which was about 52 degrees.

They all sat down at the table as dinner started. A few minutes into the dinner they all turned at the sound of a light pop by Harry's chair. He looked down to see Dobby moving into a low bow and then holding out a mass of letters to him.

Harry collected them. "Thank you Dobby."

"Dobby is very pleased to help Sir Mr. Potter Sir," he said, bowing again before popping away.

Harry turned back to the table who were staring at him questioningly. "Dobby is delivering my mail for me from the people who are sending it straight to Hogwarts." They all nodded and went back to their dinner. Harry ignored the rest of his dinner in exchange for searching through his new mail. He passed over most of the letters, especially the one from the Pope who insisted on talking to him once a week. As he was glancing over a letter from the Queen, about to set down the others to open it, the letter behind it caught his eye. He set down the others and looked over the envelope.

On the corner of the envelope where a stamp would be on muggle mail was a black seal made with sealing wax and a stamp. The seal was a classic and simple design of a smaller A in front of a larger P with spikes at the edges of the letters. It was written very old fashioned but in a very strangely dramatic sort of lettering. It was dark.

.

**Sir St. Jimmy (Harry James Potter)**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

**Location Unknown**

**.**

The same seal was holding the letter together on the back. He carefully broke the seal and pulled out three letters. One was a folded letter addressed to him, the second was a small reply envelope and the third was a smaller letter on a thin and short piece of paper that was labeled 'Code.' He turned to the letter first.

.

**Dear Sir St. Jimmy, **

**This personal letter is from The Association of Punks, also known as the Worldwide Punks Association or in the words of some Wiggers or Preps 'England's Best P.'**

Harry couldn't help but giggle at this as he'd never heard anyone mention England's Best P, but it was a very funny name for Punk's enemies to make up. He felt the eyes of the table on him but ignored them as he continued to read, sinking into his seat as he enjoyed it.

**I, the President of the association in England, have been notified to formally invite you to a party of all things Punk and also to join the association. To join the party you do not have to join the association. Joining would simply be an easy way to contact you with more information. This party is absolutely in your honor. We intend for it to be five days from today, Saturday, December tenth, at Tricky Theater; a large open theater with room enough for four bands and 6,ooo people and has been offered to us for this cause, where you will be honored. **

**Why exactly is this particular association honoring you, you may ask? Well, being punks we've never had a very good name. We steal cars, we damage society and parents don't want us to hang out with their children in fear of us putting them in danger or damaging their psyche. We know you have this problem because of the papers; we hope it's correct we do not wish to insult you, with your fiancé's grandmother. But now, because of you, Punks have a whole new image. We're bad little children, teens, even adults we are; we wear black and we pierce things people don't think should be pierced; we have very dirty mouths and have a whole book of slang for our personal use that we use on a daily basis. We are all of these things but now we are hardly judged. You, a punk, with a lip ring, tattoos, a dirty mouth, a secret organization of punk followers, have just saved the world from a very evil foe. What more could a punk do to better their name and the name of their 'brethren?' **

**So in honor of you and all that you have done to better us as people, as human beings, and as punks, we would like to celebrate you. **

**To celebrate you we are throwing a grand party, inviting all members of 'England's Best Punks,' your followers, and anyone else you would like to invite. (Please let us know of any followers you would like to invite that do not live in England, along with the others, on your reply.) At this party all your favorite bands that we know of (that are still all living) will be playing including: Rufus Wainwright, My Chemical Romance, The Matches, Concrete Blonde, Muse, The Strokes, The Misfits, Anti-Flag, Bow Wow Wow, Gang of Four, Orange, The Fratellis, New Order, Green Day, Sponge, Lit, Souixse and the Banshees, The Arctic Monkeys, The Long Blondes, and many more. **

**Along with this letter is a short note on the code that comes along with being a part of the Punk Association, most of them you've already made part of your wardrobe; and the exceptions to the code. We do hope that you can make it otherwise we'll have to celebrate without you and it wouldn't be as influential. Please reply in the envelope we've provided. You may send via owl. **

**I would also like to inform you before I end this letter that the entire party is free of charge. There is no paying for seats, entrance, food…etc. Also, this will be an all day festivity, maybe two if we can't fit all the bands in. There will be food and drinks provided for everyone, all food; breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be free of any charge. We all hope you can make it.**

**President Greg Herick**

**The Association of Punks**

**Ps. since there is no fee to get into the party we are always open to donations from those more fortunate punks. Anyone who can give anything to our cause, we are very thankful. Every penny donated counts. (All forms of currency are accepted.)**

.

"Harry, are you alright?" Fish asked, eyeing him suspiciously. "You keep making this creepy smile. And you were giggling."

Harry silently handed the letter to him while he picked up the list of codes.

.

**Codes:**

**All Punks must be wearing some form of black clothing or tarnished, tawdry wear. **

**All Punks must be of the following groups:**

**Punk (true punk)**

**Gothic (light)**

**All Punks must have either: one piercing, one tattoo, or two pairs of Converse (one pair must be black).**

**Boy Punks are permitted to wear: black eye makeup (only if smudged; can also be red, pink, or other colors), black fingernail polish (chipped or fresh is both fine).**

***Girl Punks are not permitted to come half dressed. Skirts are to be at least to the middle of the thigh. If you bend over and your undergarments are shown you'll be thrown out. Corsets are permitted but if anything hangs out you will be forced to change or be kicked out. **

***There will be no drugs or alcohol permitted in the Theatre, smoking will be permitted to outside the area. **

***- This symbols symbolizes that this rule is not original for the Association and has been changed for this specific occasion for the benefit of the guest of honor.**

**Exceptions to Codes:**

**Boy Punks often take on 'Preppy' spouses, lovers, or girlfriends. We respect that your significant other may not be a punk and up to Code standards. All significant others must be accompanied by their Punk when going into the Theatre. **

**An exception to the first exception is that Girl Punks with 'Preppy' boyfriends must show proof that their boyfriend will not do any damage. Boy Preps are often more violent and tend to create more of a scene than 'Preppy' girlfriends. **

.

"I love my fans," Harry said, smiling at the paper.

"Would one of you like to inform the rest of the table why you two are smiling like maniacs?" James asked.

Harry looked up at them. "I'm being honored…by the Association of Punks. They're going to throw me a huge party in five days with all my favorite bands, ones that are still alive of course. And they're going to feed me and make everyone dress in black."

"For what, exactly?" asked Mrs. Mrs. McNeal.

"Well for saving the world and giving Punks a good name I suppose. Well, that's what they said anyway. Maybe it's just a way to lure me to a low security building with thousands of darkly dressed teens planning to kidnap me and hide me in their closets forever. You'd be happy then right?"

"Oh but you'd always have a chance to escape if they kept you alive. Those friends of yours aren't very smart of course."

Harry turned to Fish and then back at the code list. "Fishy have you ever painted your nails black?"

"Um, no but my sister once tried to convince me. I told her I'd wear as much smudged eye shadow and mascara as she wanted but I would not wear nail polish," Fish said, as though he didn't know what Harry was up to.

"Well I guess we can cross that one out but makeup is part of the whole outfit so we'll have to go find some mascara."

Fish just nodded and they both looked up over the paper to see Bonnie's grandmother looking shocked and disturbed by the thought of boys wearing makeup or nail polish like women.

"And I'm sure you're not expecting me, Hermione and Ginny to dress up like Hanna, are you?" Bonnie asked.

"Of course not pet. See the code here, that tells us how we're supposed to dress and who's allowed, also has exceptions. Since I'm a punk and you're my girlfriend you don't have to dress up. You can be as preppy as you'd like as long as I'm the one getting you in. And Fish can do the same for Ginny and Ron for Hermione."

"Harry, I'm not a punk," Ron pointed out.

"We can make you look punk. We just need to put you in tight jeans and brown Converse and you're perfect."

"Right," Ron said, unconvinced.

"Don't you think a party full of punks would be a bit depressing for you?" Jacobie asked, grabbing Harry's attention.

"…What's that supposed to mean? Why would a party honoring me be depressing? Punks are very enjoyable people," Harry said.

"Well, during the dancing part, isn't a Punk's only dance move jumping and moshing? And well, you can't do either, what with your cane and bum leg and all."

Harry fumed. "Do you have a death wish?" Harry growled, dangerously low, leaning across the table.

"I was only thinking of you Harry. I mean, we wouldn't want the Savior hurting himself would we?"

The table was tense with silence as everyone watched the encounter. From numerous threats from Harry about splitting people's heads open with his cane they knew he didn't take insults to his leg lightly.

Harry glared at Jacobie across the table. They were sitting across from each other and the table was thin. With realization of how he could hurt Jacobie without killing him, he smiled evilly at him. Fish recognized Harry's expression and scooted closer to James.

"I'm so glad you're concerned with my safety Jacobie but I'm awfully sure I can take care of myself. In the meantime, why don't you take the time to figure out just how hard it may be to walk around on a broken leg?" Moving his leg forward he moved Jacobie's to the side, easily breaking it under the pressure. Under the table was the sound of a very harsh crack, which made everyone wince.

Jacobie cried out loudly and moved back from the table. "You broke my leg!" he said, horrified.

"Oh calm down. I almost had my arm cut off once and I didn't whine nearly as much as you are now. And just think, if I had been really angry I would have just tore your leg right off. Just think how fashionable you would look in a wheelchair," Harry said, happy about the events. "Now, if you make one more crack at me I will forget the small fact that you're Bonnie's cousin, which is the only thing keeping you alive right now." Harry stood up from the table, taking his papers and left the room. Fish, Tim and Tom and even Ron (who was laughing behind his hand with Fish) quickly followed.

Jacobie turned to Bonnie, who was sitting beside only Ginny and Hermione now, as a Healer was called to fix his leg. "Your fiancée is very violent Bonnie. He probably won't make a very safe husband."

"Oh, probably not. But then again, he likes me and so has no reason to be violent with me. You, however, should probably watch what you say." She giggled and left the table with Ginny and Hermione.

/-

"Harry, you have to stop letting Jacobie get to you," Fish warned as they stood in the hallway at one a.m, without the ears of crowds everywhere to listen in. "He's not worth losing your control."

"I'm not losing my control Fish. I'm perfectly fine. But you're not the one who can hear exactly what's going on in that stupid little head of his. He's disgusting, preppy, and rude. He deserves to get a broken leg."

"I guess. But…."

"You're turning into a big worry wart Fish. I'm fine. No need to worry," Harry said, patting him on the shoulder and discretely stroking a stand of his hair. "Ron thought I was funny."

"Well Ron doesn't know it took you two years to not crumple someone's hand like tinfoil when shaking hands."

"I can't fall back Fish. I have complete control over my strength. I carry my thousand pound cane around all day and still go to sleep holding Bonnie without breaking her bones. Are you secretly favoring Jacobie over me," Harry asked, leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, "because we can always go to church and—"

"Shut up. You know I would never leave you for some rich, preppy kid. Especially one who's trying to flirt with his cousin, who he knows to be engaged to the Savior of the world. Just, don't kill him. He is going to be part of your family after your wedding."

"Not if I kill him he won't. And when I get through the marriage maybe he'll be disowned for not succeeding in his grandmother's dirty work."

"That is low. Her grandmother is just getting dirty isn't she? There must be another reason as to why she doesn't like you."

"Yeah, but since I don't know what that is it's not like I can fix it."

"But you can just forget about her. In a few days we'll be going to a huge punk party. We'll get all in full uniform and we can force Ron into some eyeliner or something. It'll be great."

"Yeah, and if all goes well I should be able to get rid of my cane by then anyway. Madam Pomfrey gave me some good news yesterday. Little good, little bad."

"That's great. So we can go jumping, as our little prep would say. You'll get to see Rufus Wainwright before your funeral."

"Yeah," Harry sighed.

They both turned to see Bonnie's door open. She stepped out tiredly. "Are you two finished talking?" she yawned.

They both stared. "Were you listening through the door, Bonnie?" Harry asked.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "No, I was talking to Mooshie-mooshie waiting for you to finish. Are you coming back to bed or should I go back in and feign more sleep?"

Harry turned his eyes to Fish questioningly.

Fish shrugged and looked down.

Looking back at Bonnie, "I'll come in in a few seconds."

Bonnie turned around and headed back into her room. Harry turned to Fish. He still looked worried. "Don't worry about me Fish. Everything is fine. I'm not anymore insane than usual and I won't break off anyone's arms or legs."

"Fine. But I'm here to fight if you want. Just as long as you're not breaking unknowing people's arms."

"I'm fine Fish."

"Alright. Just don't forget. I'm your follower for a reason, remember?"

"I know."

They both went silent.

"We should get to bed now."

"See you in the morning then." Fish headed toward his own room while Harry headed back to Bonnie's room.

/-

Throughout the next five days Harry and the others tried their best to avoid Bonnie's cousins and her grandmother. They rode horses, swam in the pool—at which point Bonnie's girl cousins sat and stared at Harry from the other side of the pool—and went undercover shopping at England's Trash & Vaudeville¹ for mascara and some new clothes.

/-

The night before the concert…

"I wonder if any other girls watched their boyfriends put on their makeup?" Bonnie asked Harry. She was sitting on the counter beside the sink in Harry's bathroom watching him spread mascara onto his already long, black eyelashes. He said it was better to put it on the night before because then the eye shadow and mascara smeared naturally while he slept instead of him having to do it himself where it would look unnatural. Bonnie didn't wear makeup so she hardly knew what he was talking about.

"I'm not sure. I could call up Gene Simmons for you and ask him. Or you could always run across the hall and see if Ginny is watching Fish put on his makeup."

"You're so weird."

"Ah, but you'll love me when I'm all pretty in the morning won't you?" Harry smiled. "I remember the first time I saw you in the morning with all my makeup on; you smiled a little, gave a small giggle and then fell right to your knees. You were funny."

"You were acting all weird. Using your little…alluring voice and your crooked smile. And I was unprepared. Your eyes are all shiny and your skin looks healthier."

Harry stopped and turned to her. "Do I normally look sick?"

"Health_ier_. You're not unhealthy looking just skinny and pale."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically, turning back the mirror with the eyeliner.

"No problem. I have a question," she said quickly, leaning down to look at him as she kicked her feet against the counter. "How come you allow yourself to wear makeup but you won't talk to me if I put on a bit of lip gloss or lipstick."

"I don't want to kiss your lip stick pet. It's dry and sticky, lip gloss is _wet_ and sticky and I don't wear either. You have a beautiful face without makeup and it's a well known fact that eye shadow and other types of makeup can open your pours and infest your skin cells and through years of being a busy person you'll either die a very ugly old woman wearing a lot of makeup or get plastic surgery at the age of forty instead of sixty like your grandmother. While I only put on makeup for special occasions and only wear mascara and eyeliner, girls seem to find a reason to wear it everyday even if their face is as beautiful as yours."

"So I can never wear any?"

"You're so beautiful I want to see every bit of your beautiful face every second of every day and none of it should be hidden."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and nodded her head, not really agreeing but trying to pretend she got the point of Harry's little speech. She turned to watch Harry finish his eyeliner. "My grandmother is going to hate you. Mascara on a boy is one thing she very highly opposes."

"Well maybe you inherited your fainting habit from her and she won't be able to resist my beautiful green eyes either."

"Ha ha. If I sleep with you tonight your eyeliner won't be all over my pillow right?" Bonnie asked.

"No."

"Well then hurry up. I'm getting tired."

"You can go to sleep."

"But I want to sleep with you."

"I'll be in bed in just a few minutes," he said as she fiddled carelessly with the collar of his 'Orange' T-shirt.

Bonnie leaned forward toward his neck, her breath caressing against his skin. "It doesn't have to be perfect it's just going to smudge anyway." She placed a kiss on his neck under her chin.

"I'm almost finished. Go cuddle Mooshie-mooshie if you must."

Bonnie sighed against his neck before jumping off the counter, letting his collar slip between her fingertips. "I'll go pull back the sheets and if Mooshie-mooshie takes up your place in my bed I will not shove him over for you."

Harry smiled before continuing to finish. When he did he came to bed to find Mooshie-mooshie in his spot just as Bonnie said he may well be. Harry turned to the dog and pointed toward the floor. "Down!"

Mooshie-mooshie growled.

Harry snapped his fingers and pointed toward the floor.

He quickly jumped to the floor and curled up in his blue satin bed as Harry crawled in beside Bonnie. "I think he's starting to like me."

"No. He's just been watching the way you treat Jacobie," Bonnie said. "He's afraid you might try to break his leg to if he cuddles with me when you're not allowing it."

"You're not angry about that are you?"

"Of course not. It's your leg; you have every right to defend it," she mumbled sleepily, curling into his chest.

When Harry woke up the next morning Bonnie was sitting up beside him and staring down at him. She blushed and looked away when she noticed he was staring back at her.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"It's alright." He leaned up and placed a kiss on her lips, gently stroking her cheek. He leaned back and looked at the clock. It was near breakfast. They would have to leave right after for the party.

"We should get dressed," he said, sitting up.

"I already did," she smiled, still staring at his eyes.

Harry looked her over. She was wearing black, lace, loose-fitting, polka-dotted tights; and a t-shirted, red trapeze dress. Her red Dock Martins were sitting in the corner by his closet. He turned back to her. "Couldn't sleep?"

"I was a bit excited I guess," she smiled shyly.

Harry smiled. "You didn't get up early to watch me sleep did you?"

She laughed absurdly. "I wasn't watching you sleep. That's stalkerish." She giggled and sighed.

Harry smiled. "Right." He leaned up and placed a kiss on her lips again. "Well I'm gonna dress."

"Can I stay?" Bonnie asked excitedly, eager to see Harry all dressed up in tight, black jeans and gloves and jackets.

"Sure," he said, hovering in front of his closet for a few seconds before gathering his clothes.

Once placing them on his bed he headed into the bathroom to shower quickly and brush his teeth and other things. When he came out he grabbed his clothes to dress. He used magic to change his pants—much to Bonnie's disappointment—floods that displayed his black and red striped socks and had two patches of his favorite bands on one leg, before pulling off his shirt and grabbing thin, black, fingerless gloves that went up to his elbow. He then pulled on a black Siouxsie and the Banshees T-shirt over a tattered red T-shirt before hooking up his black belt, with small hooks on it, so it would hang on one hip. Over the red shirt he wore a loose black vest that had a few buttons on the left side.

When he was finished Bonnie joined him on the floor to pull on their shoes before they headed downstairs.

"Oh Harry, you look so pretty," Sirius joked as Harry sat down beside him.

"I know, I'm just oozing beautifulness this morning," Harry played along.

Sirius turned to James. "Are you sure you didn't have a girl?"

"I think he looks gorgeous," Bonnie said, staring up at him in a light daze, like a star-crossed school girl.

"If you don't stop making eyes at me I'll have to take the makeup off," Harry threatened.

Bonnie pouted and looked down at the table as the house elves served their breakfast. Everyone else started pouring into the dining room after that. Fish sat down beside Bonnie and Ginny beside him, staring at his hair and giggling. Harry turned to him.

"Went all out, did we Fishy?" Harry asked with a smile, watching Fish finger the blue streaks in his perfectly virgin blonde hair. He had pulled the front of his hair up in the front and stuck it straight up.

"Jimmy, I'm not ACDC. I have to make up for the fact that I've been going to boarding school for three months and wearing a uniform."

"I've been going to a boarding school since I was five and I don't try to make up for it."

"You got yourself a tattoo and a lip ring when you decided to drop out of Hogwarts," Fish pointed out.

"Yes, well. Whatever, did you paint your nails to?"

"No, I thought that was going a little far. Too much."

"Yeah, I thought so to. BONNIE!"

Bonnie looked down at her plate and put a hand over her eyes. "I don't think we should go. You won't be able to claw your girl fans off of you."

"I've been notified that everyone is to be on their best behavior. Or at least, as best as punks can be. We're all about deconstruction of course so we can't hope for too much."

They both turned at the sound of two people slumping into the seats only to find that it was Bonnie's cousins looking very dazed. Staring down the two boys across the table with their hair pulled back in braids and in fancy dresses but slumped over in their seats, leaning over the table, captivated. Simultaneously, they sighed.

"See, I can't even see them and I know that Ally and Isabelle are drooling all over you," Bonnie pouted with her hand still over her eyes.

"We are not," the two girls denied, though it was obvious they were.

Harry took Bonnie's hand from her face and entwined their fingers. "It's fine."

Bonnie fawned and ignored her breakfast in exchange for tracing the lines of Harry's hand.

"So what are you all going to be doing at this party?" James asked as the other boys came down the stairs with Mrs. Mrs. McNeal.

"Eating, listening to music, talking to people, meeting Fish's idol."

"Who's Fish's idol?" Sirius asked.

"Johnny Rotten, John Lydon, the lead singer of the famous punk band, The Sex Pistols, born in 1956, London, England. He is married to Nora Forster and has no children with her but is a grandfather."

"Your idol is 51?" James asked.

"All of Harry's are dead!" he pointed out.

"So who dressed you this morning?" Jacobie asked, changing the view of conversation as his breakfast was set before him. It was today that everyone noticed how completely opposite the two of them were and how obvious it was that Bonnie loved Harry every bit as much as she would never look at Jacobie the same way in her entire life. Harry was dressed from head to toe in punk; ripped clothing, jacket covered with derogatory buttons, wearing tight, might-as-well-be-leather pants; high tops and wore a white streak in his hair. While Jacobie was oozing expensive fashion, dressed in head to toe Dior; a gray shirt layered under a beige shirt with black stripes with a gray military-styled jacket lined with a black collar; black pants, with two thin belts; tucked, neatly, into shiny black boots; his hair perfectly styled.

While the clean, second cousin; her arranged marriage that her grandmother approves of, sat across the table, Bonnie clung to the messy, sarcastic, punk, wearing tight pants, that her grandmother didn't approve of, staring at his hand as she caressed it and resting her head on his shoulder. Despite his odd choice in pants and the makeup, Bonnie saw a real man in Harry.

Harry looked up at him. "Who dressed you?"

"My stylist."

"Well I dressed myself. That's what grownups do Jacobie, we dress ourselves and some of us even wipe our own arses."

"Harry!" Lily reprimanded.

"It's alright Mrs. Potter, I don't mind. He's naturally rude and I accept him for who he is," Jacobie said, smiling pleasantly.

Harry glared at him questioningly raising one eyebrow while he leaned back in his seat. "You're so annoyingly and unnaturally pleasant. It's not pleasant."

"So have you figured out how you're going to dance with your cane? Maybe you can hold it over your head and start a new dancing trend. With canes. Though with all your punk friends high on drugs they might think it's a pimp cane."

"I once met a gay gimp, with a very big limp. Stupid cane. Reminds me of Gimp the limping gay pimp," Fish and Harry mumbled together under their breath and then both laughed behind their hand.

"For your information," Harry started, still smiling, "Madam Pomfrey is supposed to be here any second to come and check on my leg and it's supposed to be all better by now. And not all my punk friends get high and don't ever say pimp cane, you look funny." Him and Fish giggled. "I bet you wear flip flops in the summer huh?"

Jacobie looked confused. "It's summer, doesn't everyone?"

Harry smiled and leaned back in his seat looking superior.

They all turned as a maid made her presence known. "Healer, Madam Pomfrey," she introduced.

"Oh yay!" Harry cheered, jumping from his seat, and pulling his hand from Bonnie who was instantly disappointed. "You're just in time." Harry walked over to her and then directed her toward a lounge. Harry sat down across from her on one chair as she took out her wand and sat down in her chair. "So it should be finished healing by now right?"

"Should be. But if it's not completely finished healing I don't want you strangling me."

Harry nodded agreeably.

Madam Pomfrey checked his leg over with her wand and then told him to stand and walk to the wall and back without his cane. He did, perfectly, making him smile excitedly. She performed one more spell and made him walk again before claiming him able. Harry quickly pulled her into a hug before fixing his cane back into the St. Jimmy pole. "Thank you Madam Pomfrey."

"No problem Mister Potter. I always enjoy seeing you."

"I'll show you out," Harry smiled. "We're on our way to a party to celebrate me."

"How wonderful."

Harry headed back into the dining room, holding his cane off the ground. "We can go now. I'm all fixed up."

/-

"Now when does this party end?" Lily asked, as the kids gathered around the door with their parents who needed to ask their last questions.

"We're not sure mum. Depending on how fast people get drunk and whether there's a really big fight or not and how long the bands play it could go from a few hours to two days. We'll send a letter to let you know if anything is wrong."

"Where are your guards?" James asked.

"They're not coming. I gave them the holiday off to spend time with their own family."

"Bodyguards don't have families Harry. That's why they become bodyguards."

"Well they need time to themselves and I'm sure they have friends. Besides, I'll be fine. I'm fully armed in case of an emergency."

"Don't drink too much. I don't want to find my car wrapped around a tree with all of you in it," Cameron said.

"I'm sure one of us will end up having no liquor. Like Ginny, she's underage," Fish pointed out.

"That's unfair. I'm the same age the rest of you were last year when you were all drinking," Ginny fought.

"But you and Hermione seem like non-alcoholics."

"Well as long as someone can drive here. If you're all drunk, call. I have a cell phone," Cameron told them.

"Can we go now? If you don't want someone hijacking your car we'll need good parking."

"What's the point, you're hijacking it first?"

/-

"Harry I don't think you should drive," Bonnie said from the backseat. They had to bring out the Hummer. Harry, Fish and Ron in the front and Bonnie, Hermione, Ginny, Tim and Tom squished into the back. Tim and Tom moved onto the floor once they found out that Harry was driving.

"Bonnie, I am a wonderful driver and we all know it."

"But you like to speed and drive towards trees."

"I've never hit anything."

"Then why was that car in the park chopped in half?"

"That was not my fault. I swerved away from the tree but it moved in front of me."

"Sure."

Harry jumped the car and hit the gas. Everyone in the car was whipped back into their seats as they sped off down the street.

"Harry! Slow down!" Hermione yelled.

"Can't. Speeding is fun and slow drivers talking on their cell phones or beating their kids in the backseat makes me angry. Besides, aren't you having fun?"

"Not—really," she said as they were all thrown to one side of the car, almost tilting the car onto two wheels.

"Harry, would you slow down? You're ruining my hair and I've ripped a legging on one of Tim's safety pins."

Harry immediately slowed down and fell in with regular traffic. "Sorry pet," he apologized.

"Its fine," she replied, taking out her wand to fix her thin leggings.

Hermione turned to her. "How do you do that?"

Bonnie sighed and smiled at her. "It's a gift."

"Don't gloat pet. It's unbecoming of a young lady," Harry mocked.

Bonnie growled and kicked the back of his seat.

"I'm _driving_!"

"You're doing poorly anyway."

"Don't insult the driver pet. He could drive you off the road and leave you in a safe house while the rest of us go off to the party."

"You don't have a safe house for me—" _Since all of his followers hate me._

"Shush! You're distracting me. I have to cuss at other drivers. Talk to Ginny. SPEED IT UP YOU BLOODY COPPER!"

"Don't yell at the police Harry," Hermione reprimanded.

"Like they're going to arrest me," Harry pointed out.

"No but they might notice who you are Jimmy. So keep your voice down," Fish pointed out, eyeing a few girls in the car next to them who looked very curious.

Harry sunk into his seat while they sat at a red light. "I hate being famous. Can't drive anywhere. I'll have to be one of those snotty rich people who say they _need_ a chauffer but I really will."

"Sometimes it's better for rich people to have drivers. They get in fewer accidents," Bonnie said. "And you don't have to be snotty just because you have a driver."

"Someone needs a drink," Fish said. "The lights green Jimmy."

Harry sped off down the street and soon enough swung into a parking lot at an old abandoned theater.

"Are we in the right place?" Hermione asked, looking around out the window.

"Woah, Harry Potter drives like a mad man!" someone yelled outside. Harry and the others turned to see two punk boys around twelve or thirteen heading around to the door. "Nice car Sir Potter," they said sarcastically.

"It is, isn't it? Wanna see how far I can get the emergency break down your throat?" Harry asked through the window.

"Sorry." The two boys ran away and through a door on the side of the building.

"Yeah this is it." Harry flung into a parking space and they all fell out of the car at once. After locking and disguising the car they all headed toward the entrance.

/-

"Sir Potter, you made it. I'm Frankie, President and director of Punk parties for the Punk Association. It's so nice to meet you," he said as they were all looking around.

The party was already started and well on its way. Orange was on the stage playing for a group of moshers already and others were wandering the room, drinking, eating breakfast that was prepared for them at the bar. There was a stage that was being set up for other bands that would come on after and then a sequence of stages with stripper poles. Beautiful, not punk, girls, in raunchy—in Harry's opinion—outfits were sitting on the edge of the stage talking to older guys. Farther off, away from the dance floor there was a very long, black, wood table where some people were eating their breakfast; throwing some food at each other good heartedly in the dark dining room. The party seemed to be just starting off but was already heating up as people came in after them, handing in their invitations.

"You can all go ahead and get right into the party. The bar serves anything you'd like, breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks. And the strippers should start dancing, as soon as they finish their conversations," he said, a bit louder so the girls could hear. "Um, there's no smoking inside so there's no need to worry about that."

"Yeah, um, one question. Do the strippers take all their clothes off?"

"Uh, they usually keep their underwear on but if you want—"

"No, no, that's fine. I'll just, look away," he mumbled to himself.

"Good, so later on there are to be more bands of course, more people coming and a lot of older rock stars who couldn't perform for different reasons, like Johnny. Oh and there will be some people who want to meet you. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not."

"But everyone has been made to agree that they won't pull on you or bother you too much."

"That's fine."

"Good. Then I hope you have fun."

All five of the boys headed directly into the mosh pit as Orange continued to play. Bonnie turned to the girls. "Do you want to head into the mosh or should we start drinking?"

All glancing together at the crowd of boys jumping at each other and starting random fights in the middle of the crowd they simultaneously agreed and headed to the bar.

/-

Within a few hours the energy of the party started to swell and more and more people began to arrive. Harry was already partly drunk along with Ron, Tim and Tom. Strangely enough Fish had stayed somewhat more sober than the others and the girls were entertained with watching their boyfriends act like drunken idiots while they held their liquor.

By one o'clock in the evening people started eating lunch. The boys had started to loose energy from their liquor at this point and were sober enough to make their way to the floor by the bar to join the girls for pizza and Coke. People had gathered around in small groups with large pizzas, or small personal pizzas and collections of glass Coke and water bottles. My Chemical Romance was playing in the background.

"How come everyone decided to eat when My Chemical Romance came on?"

"My Chem is too mainstream and most punks don't listen to them."

"You listen to them."

"Yes well I'm St. Jimmy and I can listen to whoever the hell I want. Fish, has Johnny gotten here yet?"

"No. I don't think he's coming."

"Of course he is. He's a punk; he doesn't have to pay for seating. He's coming."

"Are you boys enjoying your drunken partying?" Bonnie asked.

"I know I am," Ron said. "What's wrong with you three?"

"Oh, we much more enjoy watching. Harry is quite entertaining when he's drunk," Hermione laughed.

"Yeah, laugh it up. But I feel free to be as weird as I like here. I mean, look at that Adam guy. He has no problem eating his pizza while lying in it. And when I'm drunk I have no problem expressing my need for egg rolls while watching chairs catch fire."

"I had no idea you liked egg rolls Harry," Bonnie said.

"I didn't either. I don't remember ever having eaten one. But I do enjoy this soda thing. I've never had one of these before but I will definitely be having more."

"It's Coke," Fish informed him.

"I like Coke. I think there's a lot of sugar in that."

"It also makes you bloated and has been known to clean tar off driveways," said a girl sitting down beside Harry, who hardly noticed because he was molesting his coke bottle for the last drop. A girl sat down beside this new girl.

"Hi, I'm Ashlin and this is my girlfriend Trixie."

"Your girlfriend?" Bonnie asked, eyeing the way "Trixie" was staring at Harry.

"My friend, that's a girl," she pointed out sternly. She turned to Harry who was holding his Coke bottle out to Fish to open it. "Of course if someone wanted to see more than just two girls as _friends_…" She leaned in closer to Harry who turned to glance at her while Fish tried to open the bottle. Harry grabbed it back from him as Ashlin leaned toward him sensually and breathed against his skin, "I'd do anything for you."

"Well…great." He held out the Coke bottle. "Can you open this?"

She took the bottle from his hand, put the caps edge between her teeth and bit down till the cap popped off. She pulled the cap off her tongue and handed the bottle back to him.

Harry sighed, staring at the rim of his bottle. "I should have seen that coming," Harry sighed, disappointed and really wanting to drink his Coke. "Um…" He turned to the girl who was staring at him like she wanted to eat him, kind of like when he gave his speech. "You…um, you don't—" Harry didn't want to be rude but Bonnie had yet to cure STD's and Ashlin was creeping him out.

He took out his hand sanitizer, put some on his finger and rubbed it on the rim of his bottle, listening to the small squeaky sound, before downing the whole bottle with a few gulps.

"So how are you two enjoying the party?" Ginny asked politely, nudging Bonnie in the side as she kept glaring unregardedly at the two new girls.

"Oh we're enjoying it alright. Though it sure does get better by the minute. We've been members for about a year and though we know by now the party doesn't really get started till about nine we always seem to get here early."

"Have nothing better to do?" Bonnie asked scathingly.

"Oh, I'm sure we could have found something to do. But tonight we just wanted to make sure we got our chance to talk to Sir Potter."

"Though staring from afar isn't bad fun either," Trixie giggled.

They all turned to Harry when they heard him gasp. "Fish! I can gain weight just by drinking a whole bunch of these during the day. And it's liquid so it's not as hard to down."

"Harry, that horrible," Bonnie said. "You tell me that makeup will make me old before I'm old and here you're trying to melt your insides with a liquid that used to be made with drugs."

"I think I want some drugs," Harry said hyperly.

Everyone gasped (besides the two new girls). "St. Jimmy!"

"I'm just kidding. Your faces," Harry giggled, falling over onto Fish's shoulder and holding a stitch in his side. "Me—doing drugs—hilarious. Oh, I make myself laugh."

"Yes, hardy har har. You're so amusing Harry. Watch your drink before someone slips you some E. Who knows how your fragile system will react to that?"

"And of course it will clash horribly with my fear of germs and human contact," Harry chuckled.

/-

Once the boys were back on the floor moshing with the other punks the girls were talking with a pretty, gay, French boy they'd met at the bar.

"You know you have the prettiest hair. Like Kirsten Dunst when she let it down in Marie Antoinette."

"They did a movie?" Bonnie asked, surprised.

"Yeah, you didn't see it. Here in France it was almost mandatory. Well anyway, there was a part at the end of the movie where she had died some of her hair a light pink. I think that would look awesome with your hair."

"I have no idea where to get pink hair dye. And besides, I think Harry would kill me."

"It'll wash out," the boy said, pointing to a group of girls who were dying each other's hair purples and pinks and oranges. "Come on, all in the fun of going to a punk party. I mean, none of you are in the mosh pit."

"Well neither are you," Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah but I am here quite often. I've gotten my hair dyed, a tattoo…I've run out of new and exciting things to do, not being a punk myself. But this is your first punk party and I insist you delve into the traditional punk hair dyes and such."

Bonnie sighed. "Alright. But Ginny and Hermione, you have to do it with me."

"Alright. All in the spirits of punks," Ginny said, climbing off her stool.

Bonnie and Hermione followed up the stairs to a balcony and the boy led them over to the other girls where they sat on the floor. Down in the moshpit The Dead Kennedys were playing loudly and the boys were moshing, drinking, spitting, jumping, fighting…. Upstairs the sound of the band started to drift and wasn't so loud. Sitting in an open circle on the floor was a group of girls and boys, obviously there for their punk boyfriends or girlfriends, dying hair to promote punk and giving fake tattoos, unlike the real tattoos they were giving across the room, and talking while listening to Hey Jude by the Beatles from a small radio.

"Hey," said the boy they'd just met, sitting down on the floor beside a very pretty girl with long black hair and red streaks.

"Oh hey Nash. Who's the girls?" she asked, pulling on one girl's hair as she colored it black.

"Oh, this is Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley and Bonnie McNeal," he introduced, "Girls, this is Emmeline.

Emmeline glanced over Bonnie longer then the other two as she continued with the hair. "Like, McNeal, Harry Potter's fiancé McNeal?"

"One in the same."

"I heard he was coming but I haven't seen him yet," she said.

"Oh, he's down there somewhere in the mosh pit," Bonnie said offhandedly, glancing over the crowd.

"Hmm, you're much prettier then I thought you would be. I thought they just made you prettier for the papers. But you actually look like that. No offense but I thought Harry would go for more of a dark haired, rebel chick."

"Yeah, a lot of girls said that. But, here I am. Ring and all."

"Yeah. Like the outfit though, designer punk huh?"

"I try."

"You both look good too," Emmeline said to Hermione and Ginny. She glanced the three of them over and turned back to Nash. "You getting your hair died again. I thought your mother got pissed."

"She did, so I brought the girls for you to play with. I convinced Mrs. Potter here to get a little pink tint, like in the Marie Antoinette movie. I love Maria Coppala."

"Cool. You two are following right?" she smiled at Hermione and Ginny.

"I was thinking light blue?" Ginny asked.

"Sure."

"And I thought red," Hermione said.

"Cool. Once I finish her off I'll start on your three. Meanwhile, Nash, would you put in a new CD, I'm tired of the Beatles."

"I love the Beatles," Nash whined, but continued to get up to change the cd.

"You guys don't like the Dead Kennedys?" Hermione laughed, glancing at the frantic dancing in the mosh-pit.

"I'm not really all for anarchy; 'I hate the world' kind of music. At least not continuously. I like the Sex Pistols on every random occasion but it gets kind of tired when your boyfriend continuously plays Pretty Vacant every time you get in the car."

"Harry has a wide variety of music interests so I don't really have a problem."

"Mine wasn't a music junkie as far as I knew but I think Harry brainwashed him last summer as far as I can see," Hermione said.

"Fish is completely obsessed about Johnny Rotten. He wouldn't stop talking about him coming here," Ginny summed.

"Who's yours?" she asked, glancing down at the crowd.

"Oh, the blonde one beside Harry. They're both spitting beer. And my brother, Ron is beside him. I don't see Tim and Tom anywhere though."

"Who's Ron again?" Emmaline asked.

"Hermione's boyfriend."

"Ah, they're cute." She turned back to the girl's hair she was doing. "You know McNeal, I first learned about you when my mother told me that Potter's fiancé had cured cancer. For a scientist you look a little girly but I'm sure you'll be able to relate to a lot of your most thankful subjects."

"Actually, I haven't gotten a thank you from anyone," Bonnie told her, thinking about it for a second because she hadn't before. "I've only gotten praise from other scientist and Potions Masters who were also trying to find a cure. And they all thought you would need multiple cures. Mine works for everything."

"That's surprising. That you haven't gotten any thank you letters, I mean. Considering how much my mother just wants to lock you up in her house like an icon because you saved her breasts."

"What?"

"Breast cancer. All those depressing shows on television where women get breast cancer or uterine cancer and their breasts are removed. My mother would sob for hours, especially if it was that time of the month you know? I'm surprised hoards of women aren't mobbing you everyday. You brought along the day a woman won't have to go in for a mammogram and have their breasts crushed by a big metal bar. My mother and grandmother explain as laying your boob down on the cold cement and having someone run it over with their car."

"That's horrible."

"Sounds horrible. And men whine about having a finger up their butt," Emmaline joked, rolling her eyes and pulling her hands through the girl's hair and then piling it all on top of her head. "Alright, now you just sit there for thirty minutes and I'll start on you," she said, motioning to Ginny. "You've got a lot of hair so we'll start on you."

/-

Harry and the other boys stood against the wall behind the crowd, still nodding their head to the music. Harry's shirt had come off at some point during the moshing and was now half tucked into his pants. Fish's t-shirt had been torn off of him and was now half on and half off, hanging off his shoulder and down his arm and he didn't bother to fix it with magic. Ron had also lost his shirt in the mosh pit but he couldn't find his. Tim and Tom had somehow saved all their clothes and were flirting with two Japanese punks in the corner of the room.

At the moment, the three boys were taking a break from the mosh-pit and staring at two girls who had offered to make out for them. The two girls just turned to each other and started kissing, trying to impress Harry. However, while watching, his expression was one of vague interest, as though he was watching a couch. Harry put his beer to his lips and drank it down. He then turned to Fish who turned to him and laughed. "God Jimmy, you'd think you were gay."

"Shut up," Harry said sloppily, leaning back against the wall. He looked away from Fish and the two girls and looked up toward the ceiling.

"St. Jimmy, maybe you should go throw up some of the alcohol. You're getting kooky," Fish said, shaking Harry's shoulder to get his attention.

"I don't want to. Hey Fish!" he said excitedly, suddenly pepped with energy, "let's go outside and set all the car alarms off. Then we can smother me with vodka and see if I can catch fire."

"It's your element Harry; you're not going to catch fire."

"We'll experiment with a match."

"I don't think so. Let's go de-alcoholize you."

"I don't want to be de-alcoholized. I like it here," Harry giggled. A few seconds later Harry's and Fish's eyes widened at the sounds of the Sex Pistols on stage.

.

.

.

.

1. I'm not sure if England has a Trash and Vaudeville, I found it in New York but in this story there is one in England. It's also a bit cheaper (even if that doesn't make sense) because New York's is like $60 a coat but this one has to be cheaper. The store used to be cheap in the 8o's so we'll just pretend it's still a $2 store.


	43. Crumpets and Politics

Chapter 42

Crumpets and Polotics

"Too much liquor," Harry giggled, as Tim and Tom pulled him by his shoulders into the back of the car. Ron and Fish giggled along as they climbed in after him. "Fishy, the Sex Pistols are awesome."

"I know. Johnny Rotten spit at me and I feel as though I became one with the Sex Pistols. Not because of his spit, just because," Fish explained.

"Ron, I can feel ribs and all of my organs," Harry mumbled.

Ron sniggered behind his hand.

"Yes, liquor and sugar high. I'm surprised you didn't die," Bonnie said angrily as she watched them all sit on the floor.

"Nothing can kill me." Harry looked like he was trying to make a fist but was too tired to close his hand. "Besides, once your grandmother sees your hair we'll all be dead," Harry said, making them all giggle again and roll onto the floor.

"Ha ha ha. You're all so funny. Don't you dare puke in my father's car," she warned before slamming the door on them and turning to the girls and sighing. "Hermione you wanna drive again?"

"I don't mind. I love your hair by the way. You got Nash's number right? He wants us to call him later to tell him how the family reacts about your hair," Hermione asked as she walked around the car to the driver's side. Ginny and Bonnie both got in the front passenger seat.

"Yeah, he put it in my cell phone. Good thing he's not straight, Harry would go ballistic," she giggled.

"Why would I go ballistic?" Harry asked, leaning over their seat.

"No reason Kumquat. Go lay down."

"I can't. I want to take a lap around the house."

"Well we're not home yet. When we get there, you and Fish can run to your hearts content and throw up on the lawn."

"We have wands pet. If someone throws up we can just get rid of it with a wave of the wand."

"Well for the sake of sanitation, try to hold back."

"I'll try," Harry smiled, leaning back against Fish's knee and sipping at a newly opened beer bottle.

Bonnie sighed and faced forward. "He's so hot at the beginning of the night, and in the middle, when his shirt is off and his makeup is kind of runny, but not at the end when he smells only of alcohol and is close to throwing it up."

"Yeah," Ginny agreed, "but we must take the bad in with the good."

/-

Harry and the Fish fell out of the car and onto the ground, their arms out in front of them, still giggling hysterically. Ron, Tim and Tom leaned out of the car and laughed at them drunkenly. Harry groaned and pushed himself off the ground. Fish rolled over onto his back laughing hysterically.

"Oh good Lord," Ginny sighed as her and the other girls came around the car. "Fish, you're making fools of yourselves. Get off the ground."

"Oh you're such a stick in the mud. We need to sexify you my little Ginnyla," Fish giggled, stroking her cheek as she kneeled in front of his head.

"You're such a pig when you're drunk," she sighed, stroking his hair as he continued to giggle. "What happened to your shirt?" she asked, fingering the tear across his chest.

"It tore," Fish explained easily, reaching for Harry beside him. "Harry needs to barf."

"I'm fine," Harry said, gripping at Bonnie's leg trying to get up from the ground. Bonnie stared at him from above and rolled her eyes. "Bonnie, love, I can feel my ribs."

"We know kumquat, you've said it already."

"I don't know where my legs have gone."

"They're still attached to your body darling."

"They are not," Harry giggled, falling back onto the ground and laying down between her feet. "Pet. I don't feel so well."

"If you throw up on my shoes, you're buying me a new pair."

"I can buy you lots of shoes," Harry smiled, pulling himself up on his knees and grabbing her hips and pulled them close while looking up at her. "But I have to go puke," Harry said quickly, turning away from her and puking beside the wheel of the car.

Fish laughed.

Bonnie turned to the girls. "And the strange thing is, in the morning when he doesn't smell that bad but his makeup is still smeared and he has a hangover, I will be so turned on."

Ginny and Hermione both giggled while grabbing Ron and Fish and cooing Tim and Tom over to them so they could get them all into the house.

Bonnie stayed with Harry, holding back his hair, which had grown longer over the passing months.

Harry wiped his mouth with the t-shirt hanging from his pants. Harry groaned. "I'm disgusting and drunk, you don't love me anymore."

"What are you talking about Harry? You're drunk and delusional. I still love you. Now get up so I can put you to bed."

"I'm sorry I got so drunk," he said, looking up at her from her shoulder where he set his head.

"It's alright. You were having fun."

"It was fun wasn't it? Did you have fun?"

"Loads actually, it was a very fun party wasn't it? But we'll talk about it tomorrow when you need a distraction from your hangover."

"I'll just take your potion."

"I don't even think my potion will take care of you." Bonnie pulled Harry into the house, her arm wrapped around his waist. The other girls had already dragged the boys off to their rooms so she pulled Harry up as he began to drift down to the floor and moved him toward the stairs. The adults were still asleep, though it was five in the morning. Her grandmother was probably drinking tea in the lounge with Jacobie or one of her cousins.

Once up in Harry's room Bonnie dropped him onto the bed and watched as he crawled to the center and lay back, sighing in comfort. Bonnie climbed onto the end of the bed and began untying Harry's high-tops.

"Pet, in the morning, do you wanna go run with me? Doesn't that sound awesome? Now that my leg is working again?"

"Sure," Bonnie agreed, knowing Harry wouldn't remember this conversation in the morning.

"Good. Now come here. I'll take your shoes off," Harry smiled, sitting up and reaching over to her. Bonnie moved her boot toward him and watched the muscle in his arm flex as he tried to undo the laces.

"It's alright Harry, I got it." Harry sighed and leaned back in bed, running his hands over his face. Bonnie untied her shoes and threw them on the floor beside Harry's before lying down beside him, not bothering to change her clothes. She laid her head in the crook of his bare shoulder and nuzzled into his side.

"I love you pet," Harry mumbled sleepily, running his fingers over her curls.

"I love you too St. Jimmy," she replied, placing a few kisses on his bare chest. "Go to sleep," she told him, pulling his shirts out of his pants and throwing them toward the end of the bed. She looked up to her drunken boyfriend to find him completely passed out. She curled up around his torso and enjoyed the fact that Harry was shirtless (despite also being drunk), running her fingers over his marble, smooth, stone chest, until she fell asleep.

/-

Harry groaned as he woke up the next morning, gripping his forehead. "I feel pain," Harry whined. He felt someone grab his hand and press something inside his fist.

"Next time, you'll throw up _all_ your alcohol like a good little boy. I don't think even my hangover potion can cure you of your ailments."

"You sound _evil_ this morning," Harry said, glancing up at her. She was already dressed for the day in a simple black baby doll dress and thick, red tights and her hair was still tinted with pink and pulled back with pins at each side.

"Sorry," she apologized, crawling onto the bed beside him. "Take your potion and go brush your teeth so you can come down and help me display my hair to my grandmother?" she smiled.

Harry grinned before drinking down Bonnie's potion and crawling off the bed to head to the bathroom. He stopped with sudden realization and paused, sitting next to her on the bed and fingered her pink hair. "When did this happen?"

"Upstairs they were dying people's hair. Some boy talked me and the girls into getting ours done to."

"Some boy?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows. "What are you doing hanging around with strange men? He could have been some lunatic."

"I can take care of myself. And he was gay. He didn't want my body."

"He could have been faking it," Harry mumbled but let it go, kissing her cheekbone and heading to the bathroom.

Half hour later Bonnie and Harry both headed downstairs, Mooshie-mooshie trailing at her feet. Bonnie heard the gasps as she entered the room but ignored them as she sat down at the table. Harry sat down beside her and rested his head on the table.

"Bonnievilla, what in Merlin's name have you done to your beautiful hair?" her grandmother asked in a breath.

"Don't get upset grandmamma, it's just tinted. It'll wash out," Bonnie assured her.

"But in the meantime, you have pink hair."

"I think it's pretty," she pouted, pulling at her curls.

"You will go upstairs and take it out this instant young lady."

"Why? It'll wash itself out in a few days anyway."

Harry's head shot up from the table cutting Mrs. Mrs. McNeal off as she was about to reprimand again. He turned to Bonnie. "Give me your phone."

"Why?"

"Because, Tim's new boyfriend has close connections with Vera Wang and he's made you an appointment with her in a few weeks so you can discuss your wedding dress. We should at least get started on that," he said tiredly.

Bonnie silently handed over her phone and turned to Tim. "You're dating a Vera Wang relative."

"I know. I'm good huh?" he said coolly, leaning back in his chair.

"And Tom, did you find a boyfriend?" Bonnie asked curiously; glad to get the discussion off of her hair.

"He's not related to any designers," Tom mumbled. "And he lives in Japan."

"So they're not twins or brothers?" Bonnie asked, sure that they would choose another set of twins.

"No," Tim replied for his brother, "we like being the twins. Two sets of twins' makes things complicated and make us appear to be over dependent on each other."

"But you do everything together. What if Tom moves to Japan?"

"Bonnie, they're dating. We're the ones getting married," Harry reminded her, staring into her pink phone.

"But what if it becomes serious?"

"They can apparate to each other," Fish said.

"I guess," Bonnie sighed. "So Fish, did you meet Johnny Rotten last night?"

"I did. He was awesome, though he asked me not to worship him like a God so I'm not allowed to love him as much as I used to. But, he did sign my guitar so it was a good night." He turned to Harry. "Right Harry? Sugar, beer, Coca-Cola. You know that's an American made drink."

"Shut up," Harry groaned, slipping Bonnie's phone back to her.

"Well Bonnevilla, you have done a thorough job of diverting our attention away from your hair," Mrs. Mrs. McNeal said. "But now we are back onto the subject."

"Ginny and Hermione did their hair to."

"Yes but neither of their parents are here to see it," Mrs. Mrs. McNeal pointed out.

"You know, it's none of my business really," Hermione butted in, "but really, it's not as if she's decided to walk around in hot pants and smoke cigarettes. The hair dye will come out in a few days or a week and her hair will be the same as always."

"Wonderful image you put there Hermione," Fish said, covering his eyes with his hand and laying his head on the table.

"Well it's true. If she's going to be rebellious it's probably best she gets it out of her system by dying her hair pink than something worse right?"

"She has already fought in war, worn pants; and is now marrying the dirty boy from across the street. I think it should be well out of her system," her grandmother said.

"Well maybe the lack of incest in the family was too much shock for the genes and I've gone mental," Bonnie said, shocking her entire family (plus the other purebloods currently present) into staring at her with wide eyes and gaping mouths. Harry smiled into the table. "I'm sorry. It must have been the alcohol in the air."

There was suddenly a baby's light cry coming from upstairs, distracting the room.

"Oh sorry. Little Sirius must be awake. Excuse me," Lily said, standing from the table and leaving the room.

Harry slowly lifted his head from the table and looked at his father. "There is a baby in the house. Right now?"

"We would be bad parents if we didn't spend some of Christmas vacation with him. At least he likes us," James joked.

"You're right. At the moment, I despise you horribly." The moment he finished his sentence he yelped and jumped out of his seat. "Holy shit."

"Oh, forgot you hid your phone in your pants St. Jimmy?" Fish laughed.

"Shut up!" Harry turned around and reached into his pants for his vibrating phone. "Who let me set my phone on vibrate and hide it in my pants?"

"I think it was you," Fish laughed as Harry turned his phone on.

"Now that you've got me wide awake what do you want?" Harry asked, sitting back at the table and lying down on his phone with it still to his ear. "No Alfred that will not get you a wedding invitation…. Well mainly because spoons can be dangerous coming in contact with the eyeball and your father can be nice sometimes…. No, forks are bad too and all other instruments you think you can use to gauge your father's eyes out." Jacobie looked at his breakfast on his fork and slowly set it back down on his plate. "I know. Why don't you go run a lap around the house and then go take your Prozac….. Sounds good? Great. You go do that and I'm sure you'll feel better. Talk to you later Alfred." Harry waited for the other to hang up before following and putting his phone back in his pocket.

"Your friend wants to gauge his father's eyes out?" James asked.

"He's depressed. Some family issues, very private," Harry said, tiredly. He could hear his mother coming back down the stairs cooing to his little brother. "You know a run sounds like a great idea. Fish?"

"Sure, why not?" Fish stood up after Harry and they both headed to the door just as Lily came in.

"You're going? You don't want to say hello?"

"Nope." Harry left the room and started running toward the door, Fish following closely behind.

Lily continued into the kitchen frowning.

"He's fine. It's the hangover," James said, reaching out for his young son. Lily handed him over. "Hey buddy."

"I didn't even know you guys had a baby," Jacobie said. (They haven't been abandoning their baby. But babies sleep a lot and because the others (teenagers) have been so busy they haven't noticed a baby in the house.) "How old is he?"

"About eight months now," Lily said.

"I knew Harry didn't like kids but his own brother?" Jacobie said.

Lily glared at him angrily. "Harry does like his brother. And it is none of your business anyway," she said, eyeing him crossly. She was now as unhappy with Jacobie as Harry was. No one insulted her children.

"He's adorable," Hermione said. "Could I hold him?"

"Sure." James handed little Sirius over to her, making sure she held him right.

Sirius turned to Jackeline. "I'm the old Sirius. They don't like me as much anymore," he pouted.

"Aww, you poor thing," she smiled, patting his cheek.

/-

"So I can do whatever I want with it? Sell it on the black market for lots of dough?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "I know you too well to know you won't do that Harry."

"Oh, fine. Now what use is Severus going to be to me?"

/-

Christmas morning Harry was back to his happy self, dressed and ready for church. He turned to Bonnie's grandmother who was sitting at the table already eating breakfast. "Even you can't ruin this morning."

"We're not going to your stupid church," she said in monotone, obviously lying.

"Ha! And I thought you weren't funny." Harry sat down at the table, waiting impatiently for his parents and his brother to come down. "If it's the baby's fault we're late we should leave him here." His father entered the room behind him and smacked the back of his head.

"Don't be rude. He's your flesh and blood."

"Only by accident."

His mother smacked the back of his head then followed by the small sticky hand of his brother's on his neck.

"Please tell me that hand was not just in his mouth," Harry said, worriedly.

"He's just showing his love. You have the same DNA, don't get so ancy."

"That's disgusting," Harry said, pulling out a cloth from his pocket to wipe off whatever spit or germ he thought was there before rubbing hand sanitizer onto his hands and his neck while standing up.

"That's weird. Germaphobic?" Jacobie asked, standing up with him while everyone else did.

"None of your business."

"So that's why you don't want any kids," Jacobie continued.

"Because they're nasty little vermin, who spit and drool and poop and pee all over themselves, yes, that's one reason. Let's go to church before I set Jacobie on fire."

"You wouldn't," Jacobie chuckled.

Harry just smiled at him mischievously.

/-

"Why Sir Potter, sir. We weren't expecting the Savior to come back to our humble church," the priest said as the man met them at the door, per usual.

"Well it is tradition," Harry smiled, trying to keep his bare hand out of the man's reach.

"And I'm very pleased that you're happy to keep it up. To have you come to our church."

"Well I've been here before. You know if we stand here much longer there won't be time to pray," Harry pointed out, trying to slip away.

"Oh, of course sir. I'm so sorry sir. I'll let you go," he said, seeming reluctant to let go of Harry's gloved hand but doing so in the end.

Harry hurried into the church pulling Bonnie quickly after him before the priest could grab her hand, thanking her for curing cancer and marrying him, getting himself electrocuted by her ring. Harry kept his face away from the crowd, turning quickly to the steps in front of the prayer candles. He lit four of them before kneeling and leaning slightly to pray on the steps.

Bonnie kneeled quietly beside him, listening to his hushed murmurs. They both stood together, Harry taking her hand again and they headed over to the pews, trying to ignore the people's stunned gazes. They sat down in their previous positions with James on Harry's one side and Bonnie on his other with Fish and everyone. The only difference was that two of Harry's guards were sitting behind him and one in front; plus Bonnie's family was sitting somewhere around them trying to pretend they didn't notice that the Savior of the world was in their presence.

Harry quickly kneeled down, followed by Bonnie and continued to pray until the priest began his sermon. It was the first time since after the war (ex: the emergency priest and the meeting with the Pope) that Harry was given the opportunity to really feel spiritual. He didn't even bother to write in his little book. Instead, he sighed into his seat as Bonnie rested her head onto his shoulder and set his on top of hers; taking in the feel that the beautiful church gave him.

He lifted his head slightly and glanced over at his parents at the sound of young giggling. His mother was laughing quietly, trying to calm down little Sirius as he grabbed at her hair. She failed at trying to seem serious as she only giggled at him, making him giggle and continue to poke and prod her. James laughed quietly at the pair, whispering to his young son to quiet down but without any force to his voice.

Harry couldn't help but glare at the happy family. He felt a million miles away from them, but the sight didn't haze.

He tore his eyes away from them and tightly gripped Bonnie's hand, resting his head back on hers. His eyes caught Fish's for just a moment to catch the sorry he was trying to convey. Harry gave him a sad smile in reply before down-casting his eyes to the entwined fingers of him and his fiancé. Was it really that odd to the people around him that he didn't want children; that he didn't want a family of his own, when really the only examples he'd ever seen of families had been ruined and horrible ones. With the only exception being the Weasleys and they were a rare case in his opinion. His whole life he had recruited kids into his group with horrid families. His own family was torn apart, ruined, and then brought back together again; but he had been left in the corner, hidden. He felt bad about it, but he somewhat despised his little brother for taking what he had always wanted.

When church was over people quickly left their seats, trying to make their way over to Harry to wish him a happy Christmas or get his autograph. His guards forced them to move back so that he and the others could leave.

They went back to the house in quiet conversation. When they were all back at the house they all went upstairs to change out of their church clothes and get freshened up before meeting downstairs in the living room around the tree. The house elves, like the year before, served treats and hot chocolate for everyone while others set their last minute presents down in front of the tree.

"Where did Bonnie go?" Jacobie asked, shifting the presents under the tree.

"She went back upstairs. She had another present she forgot to wrap apparently," Harry said, tying a big red bow around Prose's neck. At the same time Bonnie threw herself down on the couch beside him and curled into his side. Mooshie-mooshie curled up beside her.

"Well you're happy about something," Harry smiled, noticing the blue bows now sitting on Mooshie-mooshie's ears, matching the dark, blue bow in Bonnie's hair.

"You'll find out why soon," she smiled, hooking her arm with his and leaning on his shoulder.

"Alright, let's start now so we can make it to dinner," Cameron said. "We'll start with the girls first and then make our way up the age ladder," he said, handing a gift to Ginny.

"Ooh yay. Me first," Ginny smiled, leaning against Fish.

"Yes. It's a wonderful Christmas. I actually had money to spend on people, now that we're being paid for our good deeds," Fish said, watching Ginny unwrap his gift.

Ginny eyed him. "You didn't spend money on me, did you?"

"No. I said I had money to spend, not that I spent any. Well I spent a little."

Ginny opened the small box and pulled out… a Sex Pistols t-shirt. "Wow, I'm not a big Sex Pistols fan but it's a cute shirt," she said encouragingly.

"Gin," Harry smiled, "in Fish, that's kind of like handing you a promise ring. That's really how obsessed he is."

"It is not," Fish said, blushing slightly.

Ginny smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Fear of commitment."

When Ginny had opened all of her gifts Bonnie was handed hers. She reached for Harry's first but Jacobie shoved his into her hands. She accepted it without complaint and opened the gift to find a very beautiful diamond necklace. "It's lovely. Thank you Jacobie."

She reached for Harry's gift next and began to unwrap the box.

"Mines not nearly as pretty as Jacobie's," Harry commented, as she opened the white box, revealing three, long tubes. Two filled with different consistencies of green substances and the third a red liquid. She pulled one out and looked it over.

"What are they?"

"You're the potion master. You figure it out," Harry said stubbornly, leaning against the love seat they were sitting against.

"You don't know what it is?"

"I do. But you should be able to figure it out. I worked with Snape to get your gift because someone had to bottle the ingredients right? He said if you didn't figure it out within six minutes, he's failed as your mentor."

A shocked look came over Bonnie's face and she looked back at the tubes. She groaned before opening the green tube and reaching in a thin finger to test the texture of the substance. "Well it's gross."

"That may help."

"It's a reptile." She paused, whining when she couldn't continue.

"You can figure it out and the rest of us will open our presents," Harry said.

"No. Four more minutes, I'll get it."

"What type of reptile is it?"

"A…snake?" She sniffed as she wafted the red liquid, realization shining over her eyes. She looked up at him. "No!"

"You have to share some of him with Snape. It wouldn't be very nice if you didn't."

"This…is Basilisk blood," she said, wondering if he truly knew what he was handing over to her free of charge.

"And scales and something else Snape found. The eyes were useless as Fawkes had scratched them out. But I asked Dumbledore what he would do with the dead Basilisk and he told me the big, dead, snake under the school was my problem since I was the one who killed it. So I'm giving it to you and your potion friend, along with some other things that need to be translated."

"This stuff is worth a fortune," she said, showing him the blood.

"And you cured cancer. I'm sure if anyone could find something useful to use this in it'd be you. And don't worry, there is much more where that came from."

Bonnie teared up. "Now my present sucks. You're not allowed to open it." She summoned it from the tree and flew it upstairs.

"But I wanted it."

"You can't have it now. It's your own fault."

"I guess it's a good thing I killed a Basilisk when I was twelve huh? Snape said the blood becomes more potent the more years it sits in the body, which was why he was in no hurry to beg me to open the chamber."

"The Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts?" Jacobie asked as Bonnie recovered from the greatness of her present and grabbed another one.

"Yes."

"You found it?"

"Well actually Ginny got there first," Harry pointed out, sending her a polite smile.

"How'd you get in?"

"Well Ginny was possessed by Voldemort," he said careful. "Then Ron and I went to search for her and oddly enough that was the same year I found out I was a parselmouth so I could unlock all the doors."

"So that's why you have a snake? You can talk to him?"

"You didn't know? I kind of thought everyone knew at this point. The secrets of me being a dark wizard."

"So you killed a Basilisk when you were twelve?" Jacobie asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. It's actually a good story now that it's five years later," Harry said. "The Basilisk actually bit me and then the poison started to run into my system but Fawkes stopped it with his tears. Magic is wonderful isn't it?"

"Yes. Except the kind that brings diaries to life for evil men," Ginny said.

"Yeah, that's never good."

"Oooh, pretty," Bonnie drawled, unfolding a long, lightly golden gown from a hard black box. "Thank you grandmamma. It's _beautiful_." She held it up to herself, smoothing the perfect silk.

"Only the best for a dear granddaughter," she said, kissing Bonnie's forehead.

"I don't know where I'll wear it though," she said, folding it back into the box.

"Oh I'm sure you'll find somewhere to wear it," her grandmother smiled deviously.

Everyone else began opening their presents, saying their thankyous and yourwelcomes. "Well I guess that's all. I'll go tell the cooks that they can serve dinner," Cameron said, standing.

"Wait. There's still one more," Bonnie interrupted, standing up quickly with her purse. She reached in and pulled out a small package wrapped in silver paper. She walked over and handed it to Remus who was sitting on the couch beside Tonks and Sirius. "It's special. I hope you're not mad at me for doing it but I think you'll appreciate it."

"Um, thanks," Remus smiled, taking the gift.

Bonnie sat back down on the couch beside Harry.

Remus pulled off the paper and looked down at the small vial in his hands. It was some strange black substance. There was a small little note attached the top with neat writing.

"Read aloud," Sirius said excitedly. "Did she buy you modern wizard drugs?"

Remus glared at him before turning to the note. "Drink three hours before full moon then stand outside. Enjoy the moonlight." Remus looked up at Bonnie slowly. "That's not funny."

Bonnie's face fell. "It-It's not a joke. I'm not evil. That would be so totally evil I'd kill myself for doing that to you. No, I…I _cured_ lycanthropes. I tested it and used your blood, and Harry's. His innocent virgin blood."

Harry looked up surprised. "What?"

"And then I compared your blood with the cure with your blood before the cure and then matched it with Ron's blood—"

"When did you take all of our blood?" Ron asked.

"Hermionie took it while you were sleeping. But anyway, I tested it and it came out positive and once that nasty looking substance, which actually tastes like strawberries, hits your magical core, which it will find on its own, you'll be cured. And Severus helped a little."

"So." He paused looking down at the bottle in his hands. "So when I go outside on the full moon I'm not going to transform?"

"Nope. And you only have to take it once. You don't have to take it once a month or anything like that. Just swallow and you're cured forever. No sickness before or after, no middle. But then there's also the fact that you won't have that heightened sense of smell or finely tuned hearing."

"So I'm cured?"

"Well, once you drink the potion. And if you don't like Strawberry I can—"

She was cut off when she was pulled into a tight hug. She hadn't even seen Remus cross the room. Strangely enough, her ring wasn't activating to shock the person touching her. "Thank you," Remus mumbled. "Thank you so much."

"No problem."

"Yay for Remmy," Sirius said, pulling Remus away from Bonnie and into a hug with himself. He grabbed James from the side by his collar. "It's such a happy moment. The best Christmas ever."

/-

It was all mellow from there. Remus was sitting across the room from Bonnie with Tonks, Sirius, James and Lily, all talking about what he was going to do now that he was cured. Bonnie's grandparents were sitting on opposite sides of the room, talking to their grandchildren. Jacobie was sitting beside his grandfather, though it was obvious by his bored expression that they weren't close and the girls were with their grandmother who was offering to take them to Fashion Week. Fish and Ginny were curled up beside each other; Fish taking chocolate from the tray being brought around and Ginny holding tightly to her new shirt while glancing at Fish every other moment. Ron and Hermionie were doing more or less the same thing except Hermionie was rolling her eyes at the fact that Ron couldn't seem to learn to swallow before he spoke. Harry and Bonnie were sitting on what they now claimed as their couch, two years in a row, with their pets, both wearing big ribbons, sitting Indian style and facing each other.

"So what was in my present? Since I don't get to open it."

"No. It's so boring now. You can open it later."

"I got you dead snake bits for your Christmas present and you think yours stinks."

"I think your present is beautiful. You know me. You knew I would love this very rare and priceless potion ingredient. And mine is just not good enough."

"I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure it's great," Harry said, kissing her on the cheek.

"I'm sure it's not. And I bought it so I should know."

Harry just sighed and leaned back. "If you think so. Maybe I should take back my gift and get you something to make it even," Harry threatened. "I mean, if I'm not even getting a gift—"

"You got me this because you love me and you can't take it away. I'll cry. And you hate when I cry."

Harry smiled at her, shaking his head before leaning forward to capture her lips for a light kiss. Bonnie tried to keep him there but he forced her away knowing that her grandmother could see them.

"Harry!"

Bonnie and he both looked over to Cameron.

"I think it's a new tradition that you play us a small tune before dinner," he said, motioning to the piano.

"Must I really?"

"I think you must."

"Yes Harry," Lily agreed. "You should. It's always nice to hear you play."

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine." He stood up and headed over to the piano to sit down. He rolled up the sleeves to his jacket and placed his fingers above the keys. "What should I play?"

"Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer," Fish muttered.

Harry turned to him and smiled.

"Silver Bells," Bonnie said quickly, before her grandmother could say anything. "Just play something nice," she mumbled, sitting down on the piano bench beside him.

"Aww, you ruin all the fun," Harry mockingly groaned. He smiled and turned back to the piano starting to play and Bonnie sang along before everyone joined in.

/-

They were all lined up around the dinner table, finishing up dinner, conversations spread out around the table. Harry silently slipped a note to Bonnie. Bonnie read the note and passed it on to Fish who read and passed it on to Ginny who read it and passed it on to Tim who read it and passed it on to Tom who read it and passed it on to Hermionie who read it and passed it on to Ron where it ended and slipped under the table. Ron discreetly nodded followed discreetly by the others.

When dinner was over they were all meant to head to the lounge. Bonnie was quickly collected away from the group by her two cousins who were suddenly insistent on keeping her away from Harry. While she was being held captive the others avoided the lounge and headed to their separate jobs. Harry turned the Weather Wards outside back on so that it was casual weather. Fish snuck the unopened champagne and wine bottles off the table while Ron and Hermionie headed into the kitchen to get everyone new glasses. Ginny and Tim followed them into the kitchen to collect the extra candy trays the cooks had prepared but hadn't put out. Bonnie escaped from the clutches of her cousins excusing herself to the bathroom and followed Tom into the poker room to collect the brand new designer chips and packs of cards. Once they had all their things they went out the back door and toward the lake where they could watch the sun rise in the morning.

On two sides of the lake was a short distance of wall with benches where people could sit. Harry removed the benches and fashioned a blanket with his wand on the ground. They all plopped down on the ground with their things and popped open the sparkling champagne giggling and leaning away as it sprayed the air. Harry poured the champagne as Bonnie took out the poker cards and chips.

"Bonnie, why are the chips pink?"

"They're new. Chanel, you don't want to know what that is. I think it was the influence of my mother's new friends. Her insaneness is rubbing off onto nothingness and she's absorbing back the pureblood culture."

"Oh, I'm sure she'll turn back," Fish said. "I'll miss her if she doesn't."

Bonnie giggled as Harry passed her her glass.

Harry poured his and set the bottle down, raising his glass. "Let's make a toast." Everyone raised their glasses. "To us; the winners of the war, the ones Voldemort just wouldn't stop picking on; to our health and our friendship and our new lives. To our fresh start, our first Christmas knowing we won't be tortured with thoughts of war once we leave this circle; to our long lasting friendship and our new lives."

Everyone smilingly raised their glasses reciting, "To long lasting friendship in new lives."

They all took a sip.

"Lovely," Hermionie said, swallowing the sweet drink, pushing her hair behind her ear and glancing at the warm night sky.

"It is a lovely night isn't it? Perfect for Christmas," Bonnie agreed, looking over her cards.

After a few moments of silence Ginny sighed. "It's going to be so boring without all of you at school next year."

"Well you'll have Luna," Harry pointed out. "You and her can discuss how boring it is without us there," he said. "She and Draco will be so sad to be separated. They make such a perfect match it's ridiculous that no one saw it coming."

"Well she is one of the few purebloods left, it makes sense he'd go for her," Ron said.

"But it's not like they have the same views on being purebloods. Draco is political and whiny. Luna is…flamboyant and crazy. I wonder how they'll raise their children?" Ginny asked.

Harry was smiling oddly and they all turned to look at him questioning. He stopped and looked at them all, obviously hiding something. "What?"

"Why are you making that face?" Ron asked.

"I don't look any different than normal."

"The topic of purebloods comes up and you have this smug look on your face," Ron pointed out.

"I can't say much, Dumbledore and I are still going through the details. But there might be an interesting new class requirement when you get back to school Ginny."

"But I'll be in my seventh year. I don't have required classes," she pointed out.

"But you do now. Or you might. We haven't decided how it will work out. It can't be just the first years there wouldn't be a reaction for several years. So we thought we'd work with all grades and just make it a required class for all years this year and then just the first years after that."

"What kind of class is it?"

"I can't tell you. But it'll be very interesting to see how people react to it. As soon as we hear specifics I'll tell everyone."

"But we're your friends. You're supposed to tell us everything."

"I'm sorry. I don't want to," he smiled sneakily. "Let's talk about what we're doing after school gets out. I don't even know what the rest of you plan to do for careers. Fish will probably find a rock band but the rest of you. Hermionie, are you running for Minister because I'll vote for you."

Laughing, "No," she said. "I was thinking of training under professor Vector for the Arithmancy position. She's retiring."

"And Ron?" Harry asked.

"Auror training, most likely—haven't really thought of anything else."

"Ginny. Any plans yet?"

"Not yet. Still thinking."

"And what do you plan to do Harry?" Hermionie asked.

"Well, after the wedding Bonnie and me plan to travel the world. Same plans we made when we were young. And then we'll just wander around until we get bored and sell ourselves over to publicity."

"Or until Harry gets bored enough to let me adopt children," Bonnie added.

"Well you'll have to interrupt your travels for all the weddings that are sure to come in the near future," Fish pointed out. "I mean, now that Remus is cured Tonks is going to be even more persistent about marriage and Remus will only have his age, which doesn't mean much when all wizards live to be two hundred. And Sirius and Jackeline are starting to look pretty comfy. And since you two are getting married that means Jacobie will have to find himself another pureblood wife plus Bonnie's two girl cousins and her other two boy cousins. Then anyone else who just happens to decide to get married," Fish said, eyeing Ron and Hermionie.

"Hmm, I never noticed that." Harry turned to Bonnie. "I was expecting pink haired werewolf babies you know."

"I'm sorry. Maybe they can morph into werewolves with pink hair," Bonnie smiled.

"I'm not sure if it works like that."

"We did do such a good job getting my aunt and your godfather together though. They are perfectly perfect together."

"Bonnie, you've been spending too much time with your cousins," Ginny said.

"I know. I can't wait till this vacation is over. I was just on a roll of turning into my mother but at least she's better then them. Though I have to admit, I do sometimes have dreams of wearing glittery, pink heels."

"Maybe it was a nightmare," Harry said, sipping his champagne.

"You know, you fell deeply in love with me while I was wearing pink rubber shoes and a bright dress."

"I thought you were adorable wearing pink rubber shoes. I fell in love with you when you put on your mother's old mourning dress and veil thinking it would please me."

Bonnie blushed.

"Why does your mother have a mourning dress?" Hermionie asked.

"In case my father dies," she said simply. "All pureblood wives are required to have one in case they become widows. Then they are required to wear black for the rest of their lives. My grandmother hopes she dies before my grandfather just so that she doesn't have to wear her black dress any time during her life."

"You should inform her that women are more likely to live longer then men," Hermionie said.

"She'd have another heart attack and die."

"I'll tell her," Harry said adamantly.

"I'm sure you'd love that. Give my grandmother a heart attack," Bonnie said, pulling all the chips to her lap.

"I'd love for your grandmother to go mute and bow at my feet like the Potter family book, Our Gryffindor Inheritance, says she should. I just don't get it. I mean, I've been knighted, saved the world; I come from a wealthy, pureblood, very well-to-do family. And you're a half blood so that really shouldn't matter too much. What else does she want from me?"

"I think she wants you to be preppy," Bonnie pointed out.

Harry and Fish snorted. "Like that will ever happen."

"Can you see St. Jimmy walking down the street in khakis and flip flops looking like some American prep," Fish laughed hysterically, rolling over on the ground with Harry. "And then we'll dye your hair blonde and give you a pedicure," Fish snorted, holding his stomach over as they both gave into hysterics.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "You're so childish. Not all preps wear flip flops."

"St. Jimmy, wearing white pants before Labor Day. It keeps flashing in my head," Fish giggled. "It's scary."

"Fish! Stop! Stop! Too much laughing," Harry pleaded.

They both calmed down after a few moments.

"I'm sorry. It was really funny. Your grandmother's dream is far from coming true," Fish laughed.

"I know that. I don't want Harry wearing khaki. And besides, you don't care what she thinks of you do you?" Bonnie asked.

"Of course not," Harry smiled. "But you do."

"Well, that won't stop me. My mother married a muggle and my grandmother couldn't stop her. That's gotta be worse to her then you wearing tight pants and being pretty."

"We should stop talking about your grandmother; it's making the circle tense." Harry poured himself another glass of champagne. "Let's talk about…"

/-

As the sun began to rise the next morning they were all nestled together on the lawn, comfortable in their friendship to lay over each other, no matter who was dating who. Bonnie's ring had even adapted to the closeness and had stopped shocking the other boys when they got too close. She was currently leaned against Fish shoulder, Ginny was laying on Bonnie's lap; Bonnie was sitting between Harry's legs while he was sitting behind her, arms wrapped around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. Hermionie was leaning against Fish's other side (as he seemed to be the center) and Ron had an arm wrapped around her as well as a leg, keeping her close to him. When the sun finally rose they gave another toast to each other before pulling themselves off the ground to head back inside where everyone was just now getting up to head to breakfast. They all snuck up to their rooms to get some much needed sleep.

.

Two days later…

Harry sat alone in the lounge, around eight at night. Everyone was gone to bed after a long day to get prepped for rest. Harry was lounging on the couch with his new Christmas gift, every one of the Post Secret books. Bonnie knew how much he liked hearing about people's lives and thought that these would be interesting for him. Though it wasn't the same as having the actual person telling him what they were actually talking about it was close enough. They were interesting to read.

Bonnie was upstairs putting on her pajamas and putting Mooshie-mooshie to bed before she planned to meet him downstairs to sit with him.

He looked up suddenly when someone entered the room. Bonnie's grandmother looked over at him and smiled at him. Harry had never received a direct smile from her before and he wasn't sure if this was her normal smile but it looked just as evil as he imagined it would.

"Good evening Mister Potter. Enjoying our book?"

Harry look down at his book then back up at her, curious as to what she really wanted as she sat down across from him. "Its fine," Harry said suspiciously.

She chuckled. "No need to sound so suspicious of me Harry, may I call you Harry?"

"…sure," he replied slowly.

"Wonderful. I just wanted to have a little chat with you real quick. Is Bonnie coming down?"

"She's just putting her dog to bed," Harry said slowly.

"Oh yes. I heard you bought that for her last Christmas. You're quite the gift giver aren't you? I know my granddaughter well. She isn't as much like me as I would have liked her to be. She would prefer dead snake skin to jewelry for a present. And this is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. Bonnie."

"You don't want us to get married. I already know this. But Mrs. McNeal, there's no way I'll give her up. I love your granddaughter and I'm going to marry her."

"I know how you feel Harry but I just wanted to give you my point of view. I don't believe we've ever really had a discussion on this subject. Only fighting. We've never really stated why we have to fight. We've made our speeches and our arguments, but right now I'd like to make my feelings quite clear about this marriage."

She paused for a second giving Harry the moment to just nod. He was so shocked he wasn't sure what else he could do. He couldn't tell her he didn't want to discuss it. If she was finally giving in and he was rude to her Bonnie wouldn't be happy at all. So, figuring he wasn't about to hear anything new he let her continue.

"This union… is not one I encourage."

_I chose wrong,_ Harry thought, ready for a long fight.

"Not since little Bonnevilla has been seven. I was so very upset when her father and my daughter left Ireland for Britian. France is one thing, Britian is another. I did not condone my own daughter's marriage, to the Englishman. Apparently my granddaughter has the same interest.

"Since her birth Bonnevilla has been raised for proper breeding, despite her father's heritage. She was meant to live a life of fancy parties, gorgeous fashion and beautiful jewelry. She was raised to marry into the family name like her mother, sadly, did not. Her second cousin, Jacobie, was to be her husband by her seveneenth birthday.

"But then she met _you. _She was seven years old and I still remember the day she came to tell me she was so in love with the boy she'd met. He was charming, she said, and very pretty too. I thought it was just a phase, a cute little crush she had because you were close by. Then when I met you: your clothes covered in fresh dirt, your best friend a Fish, wearing all black and cheap shoes. I knew a punk when I saw one. A little degenerate was what you were. You still are of course—you and your little followers. I knew what she saw in you. She lived in a world of cleanliness and proper etiquette and she was curious and young…and foolish. And I didn't want you anywhere near my granddaughter from that point on. And then the horrible day we realized she would never have her own children. I blamed it on you and your filth. It was a curse you left her with.

"Bonnie was supposed to be happily married by now, looking through adoption papers with Jacobie. But instead, she's with you, worrying about your sanity and how the war may have affected you. She should have never been a part of that war, or your training. It's your fault she's not the perfect lady she was born to be. You have, from the moment you met her, ruined her life. You will only make her an unhappy woman by marrying her. She has her whole life ahead of her. She wants a family, a home, a sane husband at the _very_ least. And that's what she deserves, I'm sure we can both agree on that. And if you love her as much as you proclaim that you do then I'm sure you'll understand what I'm saying and do what is right. You'll break up with her, as gently as possible, and explain to her that she is meant to be with Jacobie and not with you. That is what is meant to be her life and we both know it. You understand what I'm saying don't you?"

Harry could only nod. The woman had never said anything about him ruining Bonnie's life before, had never included Jacobie into the picture, never included that she had a husband set up and waiting for her, that she had a whole life planned out—a perfect life—for her, one she deserved. Harry knew she deserved that life, knew she would enjoy going to fashion shows and parties with Jacobie if Harry himself had never entered the picture. If they had never met would Bonnie be happier? Being Jacobie's wife, wearing fancy dresses and jewelry and living a sophisticated life.

"I'm glad we got that discussion out of the way. I'll let you think that over but I expect a change of plans very soon." She smiled, standing from her seat and heading over to the door. "Sleep well."

Harry listened to her walk quietly down the hallways and gave her enough time to get to her room as he thought over what the woman had said. He loved Bonnie. It was selfish of him to request her as his gift from God for saving the world without ever giving her a choice in the decision. He was selfish, he knew he was. He had acted as though the world had ended when she left for France. But for him it really had. For five horrid years God had failed him. He had taken the one thing he thought he was allowed to be selfish over. No one was to touch his pet; no one was to bruise his pet, mentally or physically.

He suddenly stood up from the couch and headed upstairs toward Bonnie's room. She was closing her door when he entered the hallway and turned around to see him and smiled happily. Her smile faltered in surprise as he grabbed her by her wrists and pushed her roughly up against her door making her groan. She then smiled again, looking into his eyes, not at all scared of the wild look in them. "What's going on?"

"Do you love me?" he asked sincerely.

She smiled widely. "Of course I love you."

"Do you really want to marry me?"

"I really do."

"Do you want to be with me?"

Her smile brightened again. "Forever."

Harry paused before asking finally, "Are you happy with me?"

"I am as happy as I ever could be. And I always will, as long as I'm with you."

Harry slowly moved both her wrists into his left hand and moved his right across her cheek and into her hair. Leaning in to kiss her passionately, heatedly on the mouth. Bonnie moaned as Harry did things with his mouth he had never tried before. Her fingers fidgeted as she couldn't move her hands, Harry held them tightly against the wall with his large hand as his other slid through her hair, down her neck and back and sliding around her waist. He pulled away as they both had to take a breath but quickly moved to her neck as Bonnie continued to collect her breathing. Harry's hand was slipping lower than her waist, running over her hip and seducing her thigh up around his waist.

"Harry," Bonnie breathed as he nibbled at her collarbone. "We're in the middle of the hallway."

"I know." Harry's breath ghosted over her skin. He let her leg fall from his waist and placed a kiss on her neck. "I love you." Another kiss on her lips. "You'll never leave me again right?"

"Ne-never," she stuttered as Harry licked her neck. "Wha—"

Harry stopped her, pecking her on the lips. "Let's go to bed now before we get caught," Harry said, taking her wrists off the wall and carefully releasing his grip on them. He gently stroked them as they were a little red. "Sorry."

"It's okay," she smiled, letting him lead her toward her room.

"I thought we were going to sit downstairs," Bonnie asked.

"Change of plans," Harry said, opening the door and moving her inside to shut it behind them.

"Are we going to do something against your religion?" she asked softly as she sat down on the bed.

Harry smiled. "We've had our fun. We're going to bed now."

"You got me all excited to," she pouted, pulling herself back on the bed and pulling back the sheets.

"Sorry," Harry smiled, leaning down and pressing his lips to hers as he crawled onto the bed. "But it will be all the more satisfying once we're married right; because we've waited for it."

"My grandmother should love you just for that," Bonnie giggled.

"Please don't talk about your grandmother when we're kissing," Harry groaned, pushing her gently onto her back and straddling her waist. Bonnie reached up to grab the buttons of his shirt. As soon as she unbuttoned just one Harry pulled away.

"We should go to sleep. We've been staying up all night a lot these days." He rolled onto his back. Bonnie automatically rolled onto her stomach beside him and wrapped her arm around his waist.

"You were right. We should have just done the wedding last summer."

"It was a very hectic summer though. Don't worry, school is almost over, we'll be married, and then we can take our first travel to India together."

Bonnie sighed. "I can't wait. I've been there once of course, but it'll be such a new experience going with you."

"Well I guess that makes it a little better knowing you've cheated."

"Cheated?" Bonnie asked.

"Well yes. You told me when we were little that when I took over the world we would travel to every country, big or small, and we would see every one of them together, excluding France, Ireland and most of the U.K because we'd already been there. And look at you. Going to the stinking Americas and to India without me."

"It wasn't my fault. I was getting bored sitting around with Fluer as she flirted with the French boys down the street and my grandmother who was trying to teach me proper etiquette after five years of hanging around with you. It was hard."

"And you weren't strong enough to keep your promise. And now that I've taken over the world it'll still be my first time to India and your second," he said, poking her in the side.

"Well, you've been to… um..." She smiled sweetly.

"Can't think of any, can you," he said, pushing her over and tickling her sides. He stopped. "But that's okay. Because everything looks different when you're with me right?" he smiled, quoting her seven year old words, which she had mumbled when she thought she was alone.

Bonnie blushed. "It does."

/-

The next morning Bonnie woke up to the feel of bare skin beneath her fingers, Harry's scent fresh under her nose. She breathed him in before opening her eyes. She must have pushed the bottom of Harry's shirt up in her sleep and was lying on his bare stomach with her arms wrapped around his waist.

Harry was awake. She could feel his fingers running through her hair and pulling it back off her neck and forehead.

"Sleep well pet? Having nighttime fantasies inspired from the previous night?" he laughed.

Bonnie pulled away from his warm skin and stared down at his very nicely toned abdominal area for a moment. She grazed her fingers over his stomach in a daze of admiration, lingering for a few seconds at the edge of Harry's pants. Harry's hand grabbed hers and pulled her out of her daze. She looked up. "Sorry. Are you sure you're not doing anymore sit ups or something?"

"I don't think so. In fact, I may be getting fatter."

Bonnie giggled. "I very much doubt that." She leaned in to kiss him lightly. "So, any plans today?"

"Well, I have a meeting with the queen this morning. She insists that I join her for breakfast today to discuss how our Christmas's went. She likes for me to visit when we both have a free afternoon…or morning."

"Breakfast with the queen. How lovely. You're lucky to get invited to those things. My grandmother doesn't even know Vera Wang personally, and she's her biggest fan."

Harry smiled. "You can come to you know," he pointed out, seeing the desire cross her expression.

"Oh no. I wouldn't dare to impose on the Queen of England," she said, climbing off the bed and heading over to her closet.

Harry sat up. "Why not? Your father works right below her. I'm surprised you haven't met already."

"Well, he's still new at his job. He couldn't introduce us just because I'm his daughter."

"You wouldn't be imposing. She asks about you all the time, I'm sure she'd love to meet you. She thinks I have lovely taste seeing as my fiancé is so beautiful."

"She did not say that."

"She did. Come on. If you want to go I'm completely sure she'd love to see you."

Bonnie sighed. "I have nothing to wear to meet the queen."

"Wear something simple. Like that blue dress right there," Harry said, pointing to the closet.

Bonnie glanced it over. "Good choice." She turned to him and stared at his long form still laid out on her bed. "Aren't you going to get dressed?"

He smiled and patted the bed beside him. "I have another question for you."

"Still filled with doubt?" Bonnie asked, walking back over to the bed and sitting down, letting Harry pull her in so they were lying face to face.

"Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you hadn't met me?" he asked solemnly.

Bonnie looked sad. Brushing his hair out of face she said, "I try not to think about any life that doesn't involve you." She put her forehead against his. "You've made my life worth living. You're everything to me. You're my life. And I like it that way. So if you're planning on leaving me, deserting me in the clutches of my grandmother and cousin, please…kill me first."

"I promise I have no plans to leave you. I am far too selfish to deny myself the pleasure that is you." He leaned in the final few centimeters and gently kissed her with love.

Bonnie pulled away gently, still able to feel Harry's breath caress her lips. "Are you sure you don't want to have sex?"

Harry chuckled. "I'm sure. Not right now."

"Well I don't know how you're going to get me into bed with you on our wedding night now that you've used up all your cute little lines."

/-

After getting dressed in simple outfits they both headed downstairs together while everyone was gathering for breakfast.

"Morning everyone," Harry said.

"Morning."

"Bonnie and I are having breakfast with Queen Elizabeth so we'll be back later."

James swallowed quickly motioning that he wanted to say something. "If you see Prince Charles tell him me, Sirius and Remus say hello."

"I'll be sure to tell him. I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to hear from you. We should get going then."

"Right. Remus, have you taken your potion? Full moon's tonight," Bonnie said.

"Harry, can I talk to you for a moment in private?" Mrs. Mrs. McNeal asked, already standing and heading into the lounge. Since Bonnie was distracted with Remus discussing how he was already feeling better Harry followed Mrs. Mrs. McNeal.

"So I've noticed that there is no change as of yet, if your attitude is anything to go by. I know I said to do it carefully but you're not tactful anyway, are you? So I'll need you to break it off this afternoon."

"Well you see, I actually already talked to Bonnie about it but she wouldn't have it. And like we both agreed, it's all about Bonnie's happiness right? I just couldn't bear to upset her if she didn't want to break up. And I didn't want to upset you anymore," he said sarcastically. "I couldn't break off the relationship if I knew she was going to be unhappy right? And I'm sure you'd agree."

She looked like she was ready to blow up. "You little shit! You know that's not what I told you to do. You will break up with my granddaughter whether she likes it or not. I don't care if she cries. She will be happy once she realizes that it is best for her and she is better off."

"I'm sorry Mrs. McNeal but I don't like seeing girls cry. You'll just have to deal with seeing your granddaughter happy." Before she could get another word in Harry left the room and headed back to the dining room. "We should get going before we're late," he said to Bonnie.

"Oh right. Remus, we'll all be there tonight to see you not transform. It'll be so much fun."

/-

"Ms. McNeal, how lovely of you to come," the woman welcomed warmly. "Soon to be Lady Potter isn't it?" she smiled as she motioned for them both to sit at the table that was set up for them.

"It is, thank you," Bonnie smiled happily, sitting down beside Harry, glancing back at the man that had pulled out her seat.

"You two do make a lovely couple. It's a wonder why so many people are against your marriage. I think it's lovely."

"Well thank you."

"Harry tells me you're both getting married this summer, before you both turn eighteen. A little eager are we?"

"Well we were going to get married last summer but with so many things happening we just didn't have the time to even plan for it," Bonnie said. "But we've known each other since we were seven. It was destined. No one thinks we're rushing. Some just think it's not at all a good idea."

"Well I think it's a perfect idea. You're such a happy couple, you're such nice people. You'll have a happy marriage, I can tell. You'll be so happy together."

"I'm glad you think so," Harry said, pouring both women tea. "So how are you? Are your grandsons doing everything the tabloids say they are?"

"William is fine, Harry is as wild as ever, who knows if the tabloids are right or not."

"I think we share a special bond having the same name. He's very cool. William is older than me. We don't have much in common. He talks to me like I'm five. But if you get the chance, could you tell Charles my father, Sirius and Remus all say 'hi.'"

"I'll be sure to tell him," she smiled. "Charles enjoyed their little joke on him. Well, I guess William and I enjoyed it far more than he did but it was funny. We couldn't help ourselves. I would love to see them again. They're amusing."

"They are aren't they? I'll try to drag them along next time."


	44. The Best Man

Chapter 43

The Best Man

It was the last day of Christmas break. Everyone was finishing up breakfast but Bonnie was determined to end the vacation on good terms. She was dressed proper today, all in occasion for the conversation she was about to have with her grandmother.

Her grandmother was in the lounge with two of her older friends and Bonnie's young girl cousins discussing something about the newest fashion and whether the Wizarding World will catch up this year.

Bonnie stepped in quietly. They all looked up at her questioningly.

"Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt your discussion, but I need to borrow my grandmother for a moment. If you don't mind," Bonnie asked politely.

"Of course dear," said one of the older ladies. "We'll just leave the two of you to yourselves. We'll be waiting in the other lounge Mari dear."

Mrs. Mrs. McNeal smiled from her seat watching the girls leave with her two granddaughters. Once the four of them were gone she turned to Bonnie, her favorite granddaughter. "My dear, you look lovely today."

"Thank you grandmamma. I dressed for you this morning. I have something important I need to discuss with you."

"Oh? If this is about Harry—"

"It's about me grandmamma," Bonnie interrupted. "And if you really loved me as much as you tell me you do then you will listen to me and think about my words carefully. Please?"

Mrs. Mrs. McNeal smiled. "Of course darling. Anything you want. Please, begin your little speech."

Bonnie sighed and took a seat in front of her grandmother, who was collected and composed, leaning back in her chair, fingering her jeweled neck. Bonnie was wearing a short silver dress. Harry wouldn't hug her this morning though he tried. She took a breath and began. "Grandmother, you remember, when I was a little girl and you came over to the house to talk to father? You left me those books, on wizard marriages and how we bond and the bonded stay together forever, just like swans. I read those books, all of them, over and over like they were some fairytale. And every time I read them the person I saw was Harry, St. Jimmy, a boy who I saw, when I was a little girl, as a perfection that could never be replicated. But then daddy told me that you had arranged with Jacobie's parents for us to be married once I turned seventeen and that I shouldn't get my hopes up by daydreaming and fantasizing about Harry. And in that moment I hated you…. I hated you for what you had done to my life in just one arrangement. So I decided that I wouldn't listen to you. I would continue to believe that I would one day be with Harry or no one at all. And to this day, ten years later, you're still ruining what could possibly be my eternal happiness with someone I love. I want to be a swan grandmamma, and I want to be with Harry. I want to love him for the rest of my life and I want him to love me for the rest of his and I want to love no one else after he leaves this world and me. Why must you make me suffer by withholding what you know would make me happy?"

Mrs. Mrs. McNeal was silent for a few moments, thinking over what she was hearing. She sat up and replied. "Bonnevilla, I couldn't stop your mother from marrying your father; the same way his parents couldn't stop him from marrying your mother. I can't keep you from marrying Harry, I can only warn you. Jacobie is—"

"My cousin."

"A _better choice_," she corrected. "He was properly raised for good breeding as you were. Your fiancé, Potter—while born from a lovely, wealthy, and proper family—was not raised by one. His lovely parents, who I accept very much, did not raise him. He was raised like an animal and I see him as one. He is not someone I can accept happily as your future husband."

"It's not his fault how he was raised. He made the best of what he was left with. It's not his fault that his aunt and uncle were maniacs. I don't fault him for that. I can't."

"I know it's not his fault. But this isn't all about love Bonnevilla. You come from an upper-class family who deems it necessary that you marry well. At least your father had a wonderful muggle position in society and was raised in an upper-class muggle family himself. But your fiancé gives me no reason to accept him other than the fact that he is rich and famous. He has no proper background and has no class whatsoever. The two most important factors followed by money."

"Grandmamma, I am sorry that you cannot approve of him; but he is the only thing that I want in this world and I will have him whether you accept him or not."

Mrs. Mrs. McNeal smiled down at her granddaughter. "My dearest granddaughter. I will never approve of your poor choice in men, but I guess my only choice is to let you be happy. I just thought that Jacobie would make you a far happier woman than Potter would. But if I made you, you would spend your whole life resenting me and I can't have that. So I'll let you make your own mistakes and live with them. But I expect you to uphold all the silly pureblood traditions that I would have placed in your wedding if it was you and Jacobie getting married."

Bonnie smiled. "Deal."

"Good. Now, I should go collect the ladies. I think Margaret has the number for a wonderful wedding planner. And don't worry, the woman is young, but she has great practice running pureblood weddings."

Bonnie opened her mouth to speak but it was too late. Her grandmother was agreed to her marrying Harry and now had control over their wedding. It was gone.

"I'll get your number to her by today. You two need to start planning you know. Make sure you make that appointment with Vera." Her grandmother left the room, leaving an opened mouthed Bonnie staring at the wall.

"Well that didn't go exactly as planned."

She stood and headed out of the room back to the breakfast table and sat down next to Harry, who looked her over and scooted an inch away from her in his chair.

"Very funny Harry, but I have good news. Grandmamma has decided to accept our marriage and is going to stop fighting us on it."

Harry smiled. "That's wonderful. I could almost hug you."

Bonnie smiled and held open her arms.

Harry looked her up and down and frowned. "No, sorry. I can't."

Bonnie sighed. "What are you going to do when I wear a white gown at our wedding? We'll have to touch at some point. I'll be wearing white all night long."

"Well I plan to go through some sort of process to get over my fear."

"Wait!" Jacobie interrupted. "Wait. You're afraid of the color white? Like, you can't touch it."

"Does it really make any difference to you?" Harry asked.

"It really does. That's weird."

"It's a psychological thing. Your slow brain wouldn't know how to process the information."

"Is it that test that those psychologists did with the little kid and the white rat and soon the little boy became fearful of all white rats?"

Harry was silent, not expecting Jacobie to know the tests as they had been done by a muggle psychologist. "It's not something a person can help. Its conditioning."

/-

"Oh, you two are the most _adorable_ couple!" the thirty-something woman vivaciously screeched. She pulled Bonnie into a bone-crushing hug. She reached for Harry next but he pulled Fish in front of him as a shield. "Oh, don't you want a hug? This is a happy occasion we're planning; we're supposed to be cheery and pleasant. Now don't you want that hug?"

"Not really. I don't hug."

"Well aren't you a Gloomy Gus."

Harry looked at Bonnie who was trying not to giggle. Harry mouthed to her 'your grandmother hates me a lot.'

"Now mister, I heard that you have not chosen a best man. Your fiancé has chosen her maid of honor, her bridesmaids, is working on her dress, has chosen bridesmaid dress patterns and has written some of her vows."

Harry looked at Bonnie again. "We need to talk about vows sweetheart."

"Don't worry; I just wanted her to say more things about me."

"Anyway," the woman interrupted them, "you mister haven't even picked a best man. I would like you to at least get that done by this week."

"But I was expecting to drop the news during the bachelor party while I was drunk and everyone was cheerful."

"No chance of that happening. Besides, we'll all always be cheery all of the time."

"I don't like her," Fish whispered to Harry over his shoulder.

/-

Harry sat alone in his room while the others were downstairs finishing their homework since they were going back to school tomorrow morning.

He laid back on his bed and tried to work on his homework assignment and think over his relationships with Ron and Fish, trying to help him decide who should be the best man.

An: A few things in these memories have been altered from the original feelings and happenings in J.K. Rowling's novel.

**/-**

**Meeting Ron:**

"**Maybe if we're lucky those freaks will pound you down into submission," his uncle growled as he pushed Harry into the car and closed the door. He continued to mumble as he got into the driver's seat. "…year away from **_**all**_** of your fanatic followers will deflate your ego. A place where no one worships the ground you walk on. **_**Those people**_** will show you your place. Finally you'll know nothing in the classroom and your teachers will know how stupid you really are." **

**Harry glanced over at his cousin who was sitting awkwardly because of his new tail. He turned and glanced out the window as his uncle continued to chatter. This was how the entire trip to the train station went. **

**. **

**Harry sat down in his seat after the red-headed twins had helped him get his trunk into the compartment. He had listened to them all discuss him outside the train. This was absurd. Sure, his followers outside in the muggle world thought he was the best thing since sliced bread. But it was odd to have people eye him so strangely, like an alien, when they didn't understand the meaning of St. Jimmy. Especially a woman under sixty who had children his age. Most normal parents feared their children would befriend him and the red-headed mother didn't look to be on drugs but sounded quite nice; informing her children not to bother him about Voldemort, who he hadn't thought about since Hagrid had informed him. If the red-heads asked they'd be sadly disappointed that he remembered nothing about Voldemort. **

**The door slid open as he continued to stare out the window at the slowly progressing train. **

"**Anyone sitting there?" asked the youngest of the red heads that Harry had seen outside. "Everywhere else is full." **

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. **

**The twins visited for a few seconds to tell their brother that they were headed to the middle of the train to see Lee Jordan's giant tarantula. Harry remembered a boy in school once trying a growth serum on a rat in Chemistry once but the rat had died three seconds after it was drugged. He doubted the boy's spider was a result of a chemistry experiment. **

"**Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out. **

**Harry nodded. It had been so long since people referred to him as Harry Potter; it would take some getting used to. It was odd for so much fame to be attached to the only two names he had. **

"**Oh—well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got—you know…"**

**He pointed at Harry's forehead. **

**Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightening scar. Ron stared. **

"**So that's where You-Know-Who—?"**

"**Yes," Harry said, "but I can't remember it." **

"**Nothing?" said Ron eagerly. **

"**Well—I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else." **

"**Wow," Ron said. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again. **

"**Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him. **

**They got into a conversation about Ron's family and his brothers and discussed how they were both poor in small detail.**

**After buying practically everything on the passing cart Harry and Ron dived into the pile of treats, Harry gave most of them to Ron to keep himself from getting too hyper and the candy he did digest made him cheerier then he had been earlier. But Wizard candy seemed to have an odd lacking of sugar. He reminded himself to take some Bertie Botts home. He could live on them all summer and still feel like he was eating a whole meal. It would be back to small meals now that Bonnie was gone. **

**Ron brought him back out of his thoughts as he started talking about the Chocolate frogs. **

**It was odd to talk to someone other than Fish so easily. When he was four he'd never wanted a friend until he met Fish and everything seemed so easy. Fish was just always there. When he woke up and left the house in the morning Fish was sitting there on the curb waiting for him. But Ron seemed to force himself on him a little. Not that Harry minded. Ron seemed like he'd make a great friend, a loyal one to. And if he was going to kill Voldemort one day he'd need loyal friends in the Wizarding world as well as outside. Besides, Ron seemed to be very good at keeping his mind from wandering to his lost love and anything else that was bothering him. When a few hours ago he'd been down and thinking about Bonnie McNeal, his uncle and cousin and the fear of not knowing anything about magic; he was now thinking about candy and a sport that strangely interested him. **

**.**

**Year Two:**

**Harry sat down on his bed and put his face in his hands. God, could he get any weirder. One year he's turning their old defense teacher into dust and the next he's speaking to snakes and being called the heir to Slytherin and people were getting petrified. He was getting blamed for that to. **

**He looked up when Ron walked into their dorm. "Harry, you shouldn't mope. Those people are just so bored they like to make up stories. It must be nice to know your life makes for an interesting story right?" He sat down on his bed across from Harry. **

"**Yeah Ron, that's exactly what I want. For people to find my life interesting so they can talk about me. Everyone's scared to be near me. No one wants to talk to me anymore. I'm a freak." **

**Ron sat down beside Harry and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry Harry. Hermione and I will always be your friends. No matter what strange attributes you happen to pick up. You can turn out to be completely insane, we'll always be friends. Unless you get tired of me." **

**Harry smiled. "Thanks Ron." **

**.**

**The Fight: **

**AN: This is a part I was going to put directly from the book but I'm not sure on the copyright laws and I didn't want to take my chances. But you all know what happens. Ron gets angry at Harry for being famous and getting into the Triwizard Tournament without telling him and everyone gets upset leading to Harry having no best mate for half the year and Hermionie being an owl between the two. Harry is left with Neville for company. **

**.**

**The Formal Introduction of Friends:**

**Harry and Ron stood by the fire waiting for Fish. Everyone else had already gone to breakfast. Fish came through the fireplace and fell on the floor. Harry and Ron just stepped back dully. **

"**Thank you. You're really helpful. I appreciate it. Oh no, I'm fine, I don't need help. Let go of me," Fish mumbled to himself as he pulled himself off the floor as if the two were helping. He looked up at Ron. He stuck out his hand. "Hello St. Jimmy's **_**pureblood wizard friend?**_** Right?"**

"**Yeah," Ron said slowly, shaking Fish's hand.**

"**Great. What am I doing?" he asked, turning to Harry**.

**.**

**Summer Before Fifth Year: **

"**St. Jimmy, are you sure you're okay?" Fish asked as they sat in the park, Tim and Tom behind them fixing each other's hair. **

"**I'm fine. So I watched someone die. Big deal," he said sarcastically. He turned to smile at Fish. "I promise I'm fine. If you continue to ask I'm going to hit you." **

"**I'm just checking. You're so sensitive about the people you go to school with." Fish laughed. "You're such a nerd. Your glasses." He stopped to hold his stomach. "I can't believe you came home in those. Tim almost died." **

"**Hahaha. Let's see you try to keep up an image at that school." **

"**What's the difference between here and there? I told you, wizards who know what they're doing would make great followers. Like those dorky friends of yours. Ron and Hermione. Smarty pants can join our fancy nerds," Fish said, pointing to Tim and Tom behind them. **

**Harry glared at him. **

"**What? They would. I mean, I can do magic, apparate through Hogwarts if I had to. Because you taught me of course," he said, fluttering his eyelashes at his leader. "But they have potential. Why aren't you taking advantage?" **

"**Because they have potential. They're not insane like you and me, Fish. They're normal, with parents, normal ones that work as dentists or at the Ministry. While we both have the potential to give up our lives for the benefits of others." **

"**My sister went to Hogwarts for a few days before my mother decided it was a cult you know. She said there were many kids with no potential whatsoever." **

"**And what am I supposed to do with them Fish?" **

"**I don't know, I'm just babbling. Can I come with you this year? I bet I could get your Weasley friend to sign your book. He's so loyal. Like me. I think we'd get along, don't you?" **

"**Sure. Too bad you won't be meeting for who knows how long." **

"**I could—"**

"**No. Shut up." **

"**Fine," Fish pouted. "You don't let me have any fun. Now I'm going to spite you and go have sex with another slutty girl." **

"**Sit down and leave Hanna alone," Harry said, pulling Fish back down by his shirt as he kneeled to get up. "And stop spiting me. You're the one who's going to end up with some disgusting disease." **

"**I'm encouraging your lost love to make more cures. I expect to be perfect after she returns." He turned to smile at Harry and shied away when he saw the look of miserable anger on his leader's face and an unquestionable expectation for another sad day. "I'm sorry. I keep doing that. Don't get upset. Please. I hate when you get all mopey on me." **

"**Lucky you I'm leaving today, huh?" **

"**I don't want you to leave. I just don't want you to mope." **

"**Too late." **

**Fish sighed, looking at the ground and picking at the ripped end of his jeans. "How did you deal with your depression at school? I know going to a school dance with another girl felt like cheating to you."**

"**I left the room. Missed something between Ron and Hermionie about Victor Krum while I was moping in the hall about a girl who left me." He sighed. "I really am a dork huh?" he asked, setting his head on Fish's shoulder. **

"**Only at school. See what school does to you? You should have stayed at public and we would have ended up at St. Brutis's together, torturing the principals and all." **

"**I tortured my own principal. I can't be mean to Albus Dumbledore though. We're far too much alike in the crazy category. You can't pick on crazy people Fish!" **

"**I know. Now when you get to the burrow, eat up because you're getting too thin and pick on as many people as you can." **

"**Can't pick on the Weasley's either. They're too nice." **

**.**

**After Bonnie Leaves: **

**Harry sat on the cement in front of the park, his back leaning against the side of the car. Ironically enough, if you sat on this side of the car, it faced Bonnie's old house. It was empty, outside and in. A 'For Sale' sign stood on the front lawn, a real-estate agent was talking to a couple in front of it. They kept looking over at him but he didn't have enough will power to care. He'd lost all feeling. **

"**St. Jimmy, what are you doing over here? Doesn't your bony ass hurt sitting on the cement like that?" Fish sat down beside him, crossing his legs, frowning sadly at Harry's lack of reaction. "Jimmy, can't you just let it go? I mean, she'll be back at some point so just stop thinking about it." **

"**I can't," Harry said sullenly. He lowered his head, pushing up his glasses, which he had put back on last night. **

"**Yes you can. She was just holding you back anyway. I mean, you're all wallowing in self-misery right now and it's all her fault. She wasn't much anyway." **

**Harry looked up at him slowly and before Fish saw it coming he felt the hand smack across his cheek. He winced and touched his raw skin. He looked back up to find Harry staring at him sadly. **

"**I don't like you talking about her like that." **

**Fish lowered his head, rubbing his sore cheek. "I'm sorry." He lowered his eyes and stared at the ground. A second later there were fingers running down the ends of his hair. **

"**I'm sorry for hitting you. I didn't mean it," Harry said softly. **

"**It's alright, I deserved it. I'll stop talking about Bonnie. It just makes me angry that she upsets you so much. She shouldn't mean so much to you." **

**Harry smiled. "You're jealous of her. It's adorable." **

"**I'm not jealous. I'm your right-hand man, there is no position higher than mine," he stated, incontrovertibly. **

"**Except maybe a wife," Harry alluded. **

**Fish looked up at him. **

**Harry saw the fear and sadness fill that hollow in the back of his eyes that most people didn't see. Harry smiled. "Don't worry my Fishy; I shall always love you best." He pulled Fish's head to the side and kissed his temple. Fish blushed. "You. You always find a way to make me feel better by doing nothing but moping." **

"**Maybe it's reverse psychology."**

**.**

**Grave: **

**Harry woke quietly. He couldn't feel his body and he couldn't force his eyes to open. The last thing he remembered was eating breakfast this morning with his aunt, uncle and cousin. They had been acting oddly all week, suddenly being mean to him and calling him names then this morning acting pleasant and cheerful. Every time he swallowed a bite of his breakfast he would see them smirk or smile slightly at him. **

**Now he was asleep, or had been a few days ago. He could feel dirt beneath his hands and arms and there was a spray of dirt particles every few moments. Then, a minute later, the faint sound of a shovel hitting dirt filled his ears. Someone was panting and dirt was shoved against the tips of his fingers. He didn't feel any grass so he was unsure where he was. **

**There was a hacking cough, his eyes flickered open, and the shovel was dropped. He glanced to his side to see his uncle, about three feet shorter, standing in a hole, wiping dirt from his forehead as it mixed with his sweat. There was a shovel leaning against the side of the 3x5 hole. **

**Harry tried to speak, to ask his uncle what he was doing but he couldn't move his mouth. His vocal chords wouldn't make any sounds. He tried to rationalize why it was his mouth wouldn't move. He recognized a material covering his lips, a sticking material wrapped around his mouth. He tried to humm. Apparently that was the wrong thing to do. He made sound. His uncle glanced over at him and saw that his eyes were open. **

"**I put tape over your mouth just in case. It was a good idea, huh? Luckily the rest of your body is paralyzed; it won't have time to wake up." He smiled and grabbed Harry's wrist, pulling him toward the large hole. Realization struck hard. The hole was made for him. His uncle had poisoned his food to paralyze him, watched him eat it, and then dug him a grave. His eyes widened at such an insane thought. The poison didn't kill him. His uncle couldn't put him in the ground. He groaned, trying to voice to his uncle that he was alive. He couldn't move or fight back when his uncle dragged him toward the hole. He could only make the small groaning or humming sounds his still semi-frozen vocal chords would allow him. He pleaded as loudly as he could through the tape, wishing God would force his muscles to move. Nothing happened. **

**His uncle dropped him into the hole, on his back so he could look up out of the hole. His uncle climbed out slowly and took his shovel with him. His uncle looked down on him like the Angel of Death sending him to hell. **

**Harry stared up at him, pleading with his eyes to let him go. **

**His uncle looked on sadly as Harry whined and his eyes made tears. "It's alright Harry. Go to sleep. In the morning you'll be with God and both your parents." **

**Harry cried softly through the tape, silent weeping being the only thing he could do at the moment. **

**His uncle ignored him, digging the shovel into the pile of dirt and pouring it over the hole, burying Harry's feet with dirt. **

**In the moments he had left Harry prayed quietly in his head while his vocal chords worked hard to make any noise they could. He asked God why this was happening; why did God not let him fulfill his plans. Why did he deserve to die this way? To be buried alive by his own family member. If he did die he hoped Fish would be okay without him. He'd been a bit dependent on him since they met, which was something Harry appreciated. He'd never had someone who wanted his constant company. It was nice to be needed. **

**He forced himself to close his eyes as the dirt was moved over his face. He could feel the pressure of the dirt pushing down on him as it was packed down heavily. He would slowly run out of air if the dirt was packed down tight enough and then suffocate to death. **

**It was suddenly quiet. All was dark and his ears felt like they were filled with the dirt. All he could hear was his own breathing inside his head. It was heavy and labored because of his lack of air supply. **

**.**

"**St. Jimmy?" Fish asked quietly as he stepped into the Dursley's backyard. "Are you back here?" Harry could be planning an attack. Since they'd become friends Harry had gained a liking for play fighting with him and would playfully attack him from behind and throw him to the ground. **

**He spotted the plotted land in the center of the yard and he felt his heart stop. He ran over to the plot of dirt and touched it softly. **

"**St. Jimmy?" he whispered softly with question. At the lack of any reply which should have come he screamed, "JIMMY!"**

**.**

**Harry heard the faint sound of Fish's voice from above. He forced his voice to start working again and his vocal cords seemed to have unfrozen in the few moments he had stopped using them. He tried to make it loud enough to go beyond the tape on his mouth and then tried to make his fingers move. But then there was nothing to beat against, nothing to use to make any sound. As time passed he began to whine as he ran out of breath for screaming. **

**.**

**Fish started digging with his hands as soon as he thought he heard the slightest sound. He couldn't use the shovel because he had no idea how far down Harry would be and he didn't want to risk stabbing him with the shovel. If nothing was under the dirt he would feel really stupid but he was willing to risk it if Harry was really down there. **

**He dug as quickly as possible until he was finally able to hear Harry's muffled whimpering. **

"**Don't worry Jimmy. I'm almost there." He moved forward quickly and found Harry's feet and shifted the dirt to the side moving upward to find Harry's face. He wiped the dirt away from Harry's eyes so he could open them. He didn't wait for Harry to move. He stood and maneuvered and pulled them both out of the short hole—Harry's grave. And would have been if Fish hadn't been fast enough. **

**He laid Harry back on his knee and gently pulled the tape from Harry's fragile skin. Once off Fish questioned him. "Are you alright? Can you move? Can you speak?" **

**Harry's voice was rough and hoarse but he whispered. "I can't move." **

"**So…what do we do? Should we just wait it out? Do you want me to do something?" **

**Harry grumbled, shifting his head from side to side. **

"**So…I'll just wait until you can move again." **

**Harry nodded gently and sighed without motion. **

**Fish sighed to. "You scared me. Can you tell me what happened? In short?" **

**Harry squeaked. "My uncle poisoned me. It didn't work. He tried to bury me alive." **

**Fish sighed sadly. He wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders and leaned over to rest his head on Harry's forehead. **

**.**

"**I'm telling you. I dug him out of the ground. They put tape over his mouth and buried him alive!" Fish cried, determined to make the policeman believe him. The man was in no mood to think straight for the sake of a child's well-being. **

"**I'm so sorry officer," Fish mother said, wrapping her arms around hers son's shoulders and holding him close. "I don't know what has come over him. He just loves making up stories."**

**The policeman nodded, believing her. **

"**No, it's not a story. Look at their backyard. The hole where I dug him up is still there."**

"**I've seen the backyard. It's fine. Now look kid," he said, kneeling down, "It's late and I'm gonna head home. Stop watching the horror films." He glanced at Harry who was standing limply, without joy, in the arms of his smiling aunt, his uncle behind her with his cousin. The boy's head was lowered; his dark hair caressing pale skin and red lips. The boy looked like a sad angel, he was perfection. The man couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt him. "Cheer up kid," he said to Harry as the sad boy lifted his pouting face to look at him, "I lost my parents when I was young to. And your aunt and uncle seem like nice people. They'll take care of you." He glanced at Fish who was glaring at him and fuming, trying to escape his mother's strong arms. "May want to get yourself a new friend though." **

**It happened in seconds. **

**The man pointed his finger at Fish; Fish grabbed it with his teeth and bit into the skin. The police man yelled and pulled his finger away, bleeding. "You little shit!"**

"**Tastes like pork," Fish mumbled, loud enough for the odd group to hear. "You fucking pig." He spit out the blood from his mouth onto the policeman's shoe. **

"**This is a five year-old?" the policeman asked, shocked at the things a five year-old was saying to him. **

"**I'm so sorry officer. He has some problems. I'll go get him his medication." She tried to pull Fish away. **

"**Get off me woman!" **

**Harry quickly fled from his aunt and went to Fish. He grabbed Fish's mother's wrist and bent it back till she dropped Fish, screaming in pain. He grabbed Fish's hand and turned to the police officer. "Fucking pig!" He pulled Fish away and ran off down the street. The cop made no effort to chase after them, gripped in shock of what happened. **

**.**

**Meeting Fish:**

**Harry climbed down off of the bench in a daze as they began to leave the park. They stopped at the light waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green. Harry stared at the passing cars as his aunt was talking to a friend. **_**If God Took Mummy and Daddy to Be With the Angels, I Want to Be With the Angels Too. **_

**Harry glanced across the street from where he was standing. There on the corner, a young blonde boy with bright blue eyes wearing mismatch ripped clothes from a past generation. (Plaid blue pants to his knees, like he cut them shorter than he meant to; fading, black converse that were falling apart at the seams; and a white T-shirt with the photo of some man's face.) **

**The boy glanced up at him; bright, sapphire, crystals clashing with sparkling, consuming emeralds. **

**The blonde turned and glanced at a large truck coming down the street along with the rows of speeding traffic. **

**The two boys looked back at each other. Harry searched the boy's eyes. Underneath the glistening, young stone was a pain reaching so deep behind the eyes Harry was amazed it was so easy to find. He knew this pain; that was why. He recognized it like the skin that sheltered his bones. It was so cold, so alone, such a sterile and white pain; like a camera flash without the array of colors afterward. **

**He smiled at the boy across the street as the blue continued to gaze at him. He felt his feet move forward into the road as he closed his eyes, willing this God to take him away to be with his parents. He felt the cement beneath his thin shoes as he stood firmly to the ground. He heard the cars rushing toward him and the rumbling in the road.**

"**HARRY!" **

**Breaks screeched. **

**Tires screamed against concrete. **

**A bright light. **

**The boy's eyes. **

**Silence.**

**He felt someone grab his collar and pull him from the street. He opened his eyes to see the backside of a car pass three millimeters from him. His aunt Petunia pulled him onto the sidewalk and held him close as the car hit the sidewalk and everyone stepped back. Three other cars hit the first one and there was a huge obstruction of cars in the middle of the crosswalk blocking off traffic. Aunt Petunia and her friend looked down at Harry. **

"**Harry, I told you not to walk across the street without me. Why would you do that?" she asked kneeling in front of him. **

"**I wanted God to take me away with the angels," Harry said ruefully.**

**The cars had finally stopped and were now creating smoke. People crawled out of their cars, hoping they didn't blow up. There was a loud blare as people began to yell at each other and talking over cars. Some called police, others tried to figure out what had happened, people on the streets stopped to stare. **

**Harry turned away from his aunt to find out where the blue eyed boy had gone. **

"**Asabee! Get back here! Get off those cars," a woman yelled. **

**Harry looked up to see the blonde boy crawling over the hood of the blue truck that was parked up onto the curb over to him. He held out his arm and opened his fist to hold out a gold chain with a gold cross. "I think this is yours. It came off when you were pulled back." **

**Harry looked into his eyes. **_**Did he see it to?**_** The boy blinked. **_**He saw it. He knows. **_**Harry glanced at the necklace and took it from his hand, fingers grazing bare palm. **

**Asabee's hand was held out a few more seconds as Harry hooked the chain around his neck. When Harry was finished he dropped his hand. **

"**We're in class together at school you know? You're the quiet one who mumbles in foreign languages. Some kid called you a freak for talking to yourself. But don't worry," he assured as Harry lowered his head in embarrassment. "I beat him up for you after school. I'll be your friend to if you want. I don't really socialize but I thought since you don't either we can not socialize together." **

**Harry smiled. "Okay." **

"**Cool. Oh! And I gave you a nickname. Saint," he said, lifting the cross from Harry's throat, "for how we met." He smiled secretively, as though he knew Harry would know the true reason. "And Jimmy. Because Saint Harry sounds odd and Saint James is taken." **

"**I'll have to think up one for you." **

"**Please do. I never want to hear the name Asabee again. But I've always wanted to give someone a nickname, so there's no rush to repay me." **

/-

"Harry?"

Harry looked up at his door to find Ron and Fish standing together in the doorway.

"Harry, we know how hard it is for you to choose between us and so that no one has to get upset we've decided for you," Ron said.

"Your fiancé has already chosen her bridesmaids," Fish said. "Ginny is her maid of honor and Hermionie is the bridesmaid."

"So to make it pair up and so that I don't have to walk with my sister, Fish will be your best man and I'll step down to be a groomsman," Ron said.

Harry smiled and stood up from his bed. "That's so nice of you guys. It works out so well." He pulled Ron into a hug. "Thank you."

"It's no problem. I'm still standing up. I wouldn't make a terribly good speech anyway."

"At least I can be sure you wouldn't talk about my number of ex-girlfriends."

"But it was already in the newspaper, remember?"

/-

On the first day back to school, while the others were dealing with their first class of the day Harry was up in Dumbledore's office discussing the new class they had been thinking of putting into effect by the next year.

"But you know that if we put it into effect next year, even if we insist that the sixth years take, it won't have an effect on the society for an entire year."

"So what are you suggesting?" Albus smiled. He was very excited about this new class Harry had suggested. He had never thought of it before and was very pleased that Harry could think of it.

"I'm suggesting that we implant the class into all the seventh years' schedules this year, for the half year they have left. It'll be a great test to. We'll know if we can fill up a whole semester or if we'll need to make it a year long class for next year. I'll even take the class. And because we were going to give my father and Sirius a joint position as professors for the class we can give the Defense position all to Remus. And nobody can complain because, of course, he's been cured now."

"That does sound like an excellent idea."

"I'll even take the class. It'll give me something else to do during the day besides plan my wedding. And I'm sure my father would be very excited to hear that he gets to tell me all about our family history and such."

"It should be a very interesting class. Pureblood society is an interesting culture to study. It is so much different from any muggle culture."

"And while Voldemort was a terrible man this was basically all he wanted. And what purebloods wanted. While it would be cruel to refuse any muggleborns into the school or into the wizarding world we can at least teach them about the culture that fashioned the world they are now a part of. And that way they'll be less prejudice or surprised by people who still keep up pureblood tradition. Like Draco Malfoy or my father, who worship Merlin."

"It is a wonderful idea Harry. Why don't you go fetch your father and Sirius and Remus and send them to my office so I can tell them about their new positions? You can watch the class for them while they're here."

"Oh goodie."

Harry left Dumbledore's office and headed down to the Defense room to fetch his father and his friends. He walked into the classroom while his father was lecturing the seventh years on the several effects of a Patronous charm.

Some people turned to look at him first and then the three professors followed.

"Hey dad. The Headmaster would like to see you."

"Why?" James asked.

"You're being fired," Harry smiled. "And Sirius and Remus, you're being fired to. Go on. Go to the Headmaster's office."

"Harry, defense professors don't get fired. They die."

"Well his reasoning is going to be a fun surprise isn't it?" Harry said. "I'll be watching your class while you're gone."

James sighed and he and the others left the classroom.

Harry made himself comfortable on the front of the desk.

"Harry?" Bonnie asked, "your father and them, they aren't really getting fired are they?"

"They are."

"Why? They're great professors."

"So that they can get rehired in a different position."

"There are no positions open," Hermionie pointed out.

"There will be tomorrow."

"It's that new class you were talking about?"

"We have to take it to?"

"What is it?"

"You'll find out tomorrow."

/-

"Potter, I really didn't think you had it in you. I feel as though today, I can truly appreciate how insane you are," Draco said seriously as they stood in the Great Hall at lunch the next morning. The new class had just been announced.

"Thank you Draco. I thought you would like this class. I just thought that if we can learn about how muggles live in the wizarding world we should certainly teach muggleborns, who are going to be living in this world, about the society they're about to live in."

Draco took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "I feel as though I should hug you. But Malfoy's don't hug."

"Go hug Luna."

Draco smiled. "I will go hug Luna. See you in class." He started to leave but then turned and walked quickly back again. "Oh! And have you happened to see Severus this morning? He wasn't here yesterday. Missing or something. He's a scary sight this morning if you see him." He then turned and left to go find his new fiancé.

Harry looked around trying to see if he could find Snape when he heard a light gasp fill the room. He turned to look where everyone else was, at the Great Hall doors. There was Snape, entering the Great Hall. His hair was suddenly…shiny, not greasy, and pulled back. He looked…happy. He sat down at the front of the hall and everyone stared. It was like the Dark Mark on his arm was sucking the life out of him and with its absence he was content.

Harry smiled and sat down at his table. "Well, now that we've all noticed Snape's new look," Hermionie said, "Harry, how long have you been working on this new class?"

"Since my father gave me my ring," he said, holding up his hand to display the Potter crest. "He was so proud of his family traditions and I looked through some of the books. Pureblood society, being something that not many people understand, let alone try to understand and I thought it would be interesting to force you all to. While Ron and Ginny and Bonnie would probably know a lot of what we'll be learning, people like me and you Hermionie, who grew up with muggles, we have no ideas of the true depths of what make up the society we now live in; that we're now a part of. How are we supposed to find jobs and work in a society that we hardly understand? I just thought that if Voldemort was going to die, along with half of the purebloods, we should at least try to understand what they were trying so hard to save."

Hermionie smiled. "You'd make a great politician, Harry."

"Yes, sadly I hate them."

"So that's nice that you thought to give your father this job."

"And Sirius. They get to discuss pureblood society. The good side, before Voldemort came along. The stuff nobody thinks to remember because Voldemort made them all forget."

"I'm very excited about this class," Bonnie said. "I hope your father knows that pureblood societies are different in other countries."

"He told me that. Don't worry dear, the McNeal family will be rightly taught."

"Well it's our first class of the day," Hermionie pointed out. "Let's get there early."

/-

"Now the first thing you need to know about pureblood culture is that it has nothing to do with any muggle cultures," James began." There was never a time when purebloods took on traditions from muggles; they were set up all on their own. Witches and wizards would sternly separate themselves from muggles. In the time of the Salem Witch trials there were only purebloods, we'd never heard of any muggles being born with our powers because anyone who came out and told anyone would be burned at the stake. And so we had a completely separate way of life from muggles."

"For example," Sirius continued, "unlike muggle culture wizard families are really more like one family. While each of you in this classroom grew up with different parents, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles; purebloods grew up differently; we were raised differently. At least before Voldemort came along. And that's what we'll be teaching. The good things about the pureblood culture that none of you thought could possibly be a part of a group that was mainly ruled by a mad man named Voldemort this past thirty years. But it was much different when James and I were young, when our parents were young and…in my case, sane. We grew up like brothers, had Christmas together, had breakfast together…the floo was used much more often then it is now. We grew up knowing exactly who our wives would be in a few years because we often saw them everyday and maybe even…saw them like a sister."

"That's gross though," Hermionie said. "Isn't that like…incest?"

"Wizards don't get a lot of incest. There are certain potions that end that. Beside the fact that we may have seen them like sisters, they weren't actually our sisters, Hermionie," James smiled assuringly. "My parents were first cousins, they grew up in the same house for years and they got an arranged marriage. Happiest couple I've ever seen."

"They were," Sirius agreed. "Purebloods believed that because they grew up being such a close knit family they would have no problem making one of their own. But not everyone married their cousins you know. There are purebloods from different countries that intermarried to even better the large pureblood family system."

"Would everyone please open their copies of _The Secrets of Pureblooded Society_ to page five and take a look at the family trees and the way the tree is grouped together? This is called Formalizing; where families would formally join their families in the family trees with these grouping signs. Now let's go over these examples of family trees."

/-

"We're going to live like Purebloods, Pet," Harry said as he sat in bed, looking through his father's copy of the family tree.

Bonnie turned to look at him from her spot in front of the closet. "What?"

"Like my parents. With Sirius and Remus and them all living in one house. We can have that right?"

"We're taking all our friends to India and across the Atlantic with us?" Bonnie asked, throwing her uniform in the hamper.

Harry set his book down to think. "Well, after then."

"We're not even married yet and you're already tired of living alone with me," she smiled, crawling into bed beside him.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm very excited to live alone with you. What have you been doing with that wedding planner anyway?"

"Oh the usual. Flowers—"

"Roses."

"—dress—"

"Vera Wang."

"Would you cut that out? And besides, she says that I should expand my personality. She said roses are so overdone—" Bonnie was cut off as Harry threw his book to the floor and pushed her onto her back on the bed and straddled her waist. "Harry!"

"Bonnie, for all that is holy in this world, _do not_ let the wedding planner change who you are. On my wedding day I would like to marry you. If you walk down the isle in a knee length blue dress carrying daisies and you smell like vanilla I'll object. I want you to smell like roses while carrying roses and I will be going through a week long of torturous training to get over my fear of white so that you can wear your dream Vera Wang, white, wedding gown. If the wedding planner is brainwashing you tell me now and I shall kill her. No one has to know."

Bonnie giggled. "Don't worry. I'll tell her to shove off. We want roses."

"Good." He leaned down and pressed a loving kiss to her mouth and her neck. "No rose could smell as sweet as you do," he mumbled, nuzzling her neck. He placed a kiss there and then pulled away to sit beside her again.

Bonnie glared at him but he just smiled.

"I'm so happy how everything has been turning out. Remus is back as Defense Professor, my dad and Sirius are specializing in a subject they've lived through. Draco is happy and no longer grumpy and mean, and neither is Severus, though I wasn't expecting such a change from them. Everyone is so happy Pet."

/-

"Alright Harry," Joshua said as he sat in the desk in an empty classroom across from Harry, "this is a white pencil."

Harry looked up from the pencil on the desk and raised his eyebrow at him. "Really? I had no idea."

"Shush. Now, I want you to place your hand, palm down on the pencil for as long as you can stand it. We can wait here all day till you put your hand there."

"Will this work? What if I'm completely unable to ever get over this ridiculous fear? Who in their right mind has a fear of a color?"

"Some people fear red. Though that usually means, you know, blood, death. White is an odd color to fear but that doesn't make it impossible to overcome."

"Did that little kid ever get over his fear of white rats?"

"I'm not sure if they ever did a follow up study but I guess you'll be the one to find out if he could have, won't you?"

Harry sighed and stared down at the pencil on the table. He moved his hand above the pencil about to set it down but then quickly pulled away again.

They continued this repeatedly for the next few hours, Josh called in lunch while he waited and as the hours passed by he passed out on the table while Harry continued to stare at the white pencil. He couldn't bring himself to even place his hand over the pencil again. He just continued to stare at it. It was implanted into his unconscious to never go near white again, never touch it, never be too close. With all his genius and all his strength it was one thing he had never been able to get over in twelve years. He had exchanged all his light-colored hand-me-downs (just incase there was white fabric entwined in it) for thoroughly washed, black, thrift store finds; he wore a long sleeved, black shirt under his white colored one for his uniform for five years. He forced his followers to wear dark colors if they were around him. He put on gloves and dyed the white paper he used at Victoria's brown. There were so many things he had done just to keep himself away from the stupid color, which wasn't even a color. And now it was going to end. It had to. Twelve years was long enough to fear anything, everything had to have an end. Silly fears like the color white were not right for a seventeen year old boy that just defeated the most evil wizard known to mankind. What was a little color?

Despite his arguments with himself by the time midnight pulled around he had passed out on the other side of the table with Josh, and laid his head on his arms.

/-

The others sat around in the Head's common room, waiting for Harry to get back while they talked. It was Saturday so none of them felt like they had to go to bed early for class or to work on homework. Bonnie shut her book loudly and threw Gone With the Wind at Fish who caught it without looking up and set it down. "What are they doing up there? Josh is using a pencil. How hard can it be to touch a pencil?"

"Bonnie, Harry hates the color white, you understand that," Fish reminded her.

"But it's a pencil."

"And paper was just paper but you helped him dye them each year didn't you?" he said, still flipping through the pages of _Q_ _Magazine_.

Bonnie sighed. "Were you there when it happened?" Bonnie asked.

"It happened at Victoria's. He sent me a letter about it."

"Well… I don't even know what happened. I just started dying paper."

"Just stop thinking about it. You're making yourself upset. Here," he passed her the magazine. "Look at all the punk dishes."

"Dishes?" Ginny asked, crawling onto the sofa beside him and looking at the magazine. "Punks have specially designed dishes?"

"It's slang Gin. It means sexually attractive males."

"Like you? Are you a 'dish?'" she asked jokingly, snuggling into his side.

"I'm a chicken," he said, flipping his blond hair back. "Harry is a dish."

"What is Ronald?" Ginny asked, looking at her brother who quickly looked up to see why they were talking about him.

"Ronald is a dish."

"What makes you a chicken?"

"I'm too childish to be called a dish. Plus I could also be labeled a slut but Harry doesn't like that word and doesn't allow us to use it."

"What does a chicken mean?"

"Well it means a young person but in the gay scene it means an attractive young male. Tim and Tom used to call me a chicken when we were younger. Should have been a sign. Harry has always been a dish of course."

"Do you study slang?" Hermione asked.

"I've met a lot of people and learned a lot of different words. I didn't study it."

Bonnie slapped his magazine back at him and reached into her bag and took out Venus to sit on her shoulder while she watched an old movie on her phone. Ginny soon joined her and Tim and Tom made it so they could watch Barefoot in the Park projected on the wall.

A little while later Harry walked in to be shocked at the sight of them all still awake waiting for him. "Are we having a little party without me?"

"Harry! You're back! What took so long? You've been out all day," Bonnie said, jumping from the couch and going to him.

"I know. Josh said we'd stay there for as long as it took. He fell asleep a little while ago and I followed soon after."

"Any progress?" Bonnie asked hopefully.

"Nope. Maybe tomorrow. I'm gonna go to bed, you can stay and finish the movie if you want," he said, kissing her cheek and then heading up the stairs to his room.


	45. Schools Over, Let's Prepare

Chapter 44

Schools Over, Let's Prepare

"Did you guys find a loft?" Harry asked as he looked through the pages of church options Fish had given him. Ron, Hermionie, Neville and Neville's new girlfriend Laraine had paired up to buy a loft together since Ron had no ambition to stay living with his parents. Poor Ginny would be the only one still actually living in the Weasley house another year. She yelled at Ron for a half hour when he told her he was moving out, telling him that their parents would never let her leave if she was the last one there.

"—Especially not if I'm moving in with Fish!"

Fish spit out his Butterbeer and Ron looked at him then back to his sister. "Since when are you moving in with Fish? Where's he moving?"

"I don't know. Who knows what our relationship will be like by then. Right Fish?"

Fish had hidden himself behind his magazine, absorbed in an article about the Sex Pistols, pretending he hadn't heard a thing. It was a very tense part of the conversation for the boy so fearful of commitment.

The group sat down around the Head's room. "Fish, this is not a church," Harry told him. "This is a house for the discreet sinner. Fake priests live there." He placed the paper into the 'No Pile' and continued to look through the rest.

Fish rolled his eyes.

"We've narrowed it down to two that we can all fit in comfortably all together for an affordable price," Hermionie said.

"You know if worse comes to worse you are all welcome to live in the Suburban Children of Sub Gossip Parents House until you find somewhere you really like," Harry said passing one of his 'likes' to Nam for the Possibility File. "Ma'am has recently moved in with her boyfriend so her room is open and Ial, Avin, and Oye are currently in Africa hunting lions. Their rooms are open. And Mannie went back to the Americas for the year. There's plenty of room, they'll love you."

"Fish, where are you living?" Neville asked.

Fish quickly looked sad. "I'm going with Tim and Tom to Japan. I'll be their tag along while they hang around with their _boyfriends_ and go to _gay_ bars. My steady girlfriend will be here at school till Christmas and my leader will be off with his _stupid_ wife in some foreign countries while I begin a life of celibacy and search for a stupid, _stupid_ band. My life sucks." Fish threw himself back on the floor and threw his arm over his eyes.

Harry patted his friend's knee. "Josh is free anytime you feel you're about to have a breakdown Fishy," he said sarcastically, as it was obvious he had just had a breakdown.

"You don't care at all that you're completely leaving me for Bonnie."

Harry sighed. "Fish, maybe you should go lie down."

"Maybe. I'm gonna go get a potion from Pomfrey." He pulled himself up and headed out of the room looking shaky.

The others looked from him to Harry.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine."

"He looked really upset," Hermione said worriedly.

"He's been doing this since we were seven. He's just worried I'll forget about him. He's just a little worry wart. He'll get over it."

The others still looked worried but let the conversation end there.

Bonnie was currently down in the dungeons finishing up her last hours of Potions apprenticing with Snape. They were playing around with ideas of what to do with the Basalisk parts.

"Alright, so we have six churches for Bonnie to choose from. Now to go through the guest list." He sighed sadly and headed upstairs to grab the St. Jimmy book, which he took downstairs and opened to the back where his list of followers were. "Okay, obviously Fish, Tim, Tom, all of my main twenty-two followers from Privet Drive. Nam, will you get me Bonnie's list."

Nam handed over a long list of a hundred people. "Alright, so with one hundred on her list and 900 to 1000 seats, that leaves me with the choice of which 800to 900 followers I want to invite out of the three million I have. Should be easy right?" He groaned and leaned over the book. It was hard to choose followers without Fish there with him. He was the one to really find them all in the first place; Harry just gave the interviews to make sure he thought they were acceptable and to get to know them himself. So he went through the list to decide on the easy choices until Fish got back from his trip to the Hospital Wing. Even if the planning of the wedding is what made him go up in the first place Harry needed him there, if he told Fish that Fish would be okay for a little while.

"So Harry, how has the therapy about your little color fear been going?" Ron asked.

Harry smiled proudly. "I held the white pencil for a whole minute."

They all forced a proud smile even though he really should have been farther by now. But they all knew it was the hardest thing he'd ever done and gave him credit for not giving up on it.

They all stopped their conversations at a tapping on the window. Ron hurried up to head to the window to get the owl. "It's from the Ministry. Maybe about my auror training application."

He let the owl in, took the letter and sat down on the floor to tear it open. He read over the letter quietly, his expression going quickly from excited to complete confusion right to the very end where he announced, "what?" and passed out.

/-

"Ron, wake up. Are you alright?"

"What?" Ron asked, disoriented from the fall. "I had the oddest dream Hermione. The Ministry had claimed they received a recommendation suggesting me as an Unspeakable for the Department of Mysteries." He laughed. "But who would do that?"

"Actually Ron—" Ron looked up at her and the others standing around him in the hospital wing—"the Ministry did send you a letter requesting an interview with you."

"But… but who would recommend me?" He glanced at Harry who looked from side to side.

"What? It wasn't me. I thought you were set on auror training. Maybe it was Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore and I don't have the relationship that you do. He wouldn't recommend me for anything."

"He's the Headmaster of the school you went to. He can recommend you for whatever he thinks you may be good for. Maybe he saw something you didn't notice."

"When's the interview? I didn't get that far," Ron asked,

"It's in four days. The day after graduation."

"Great."

"Are you gonna go?" Ginny asked.

"Of course I'm going. It's a job that pays money. I was never totally set on being an auror anyway, I just wasn't sure of my other options. Being an Unspeakable seems like an interesting career."

"Yeah, because when Hermionie asks you how your day went and you say fine she can't complain that you don't talk to her cause really, you just can't," Fish said, sitting down on the bed across from them.

"This is true," Ron nodded, grinning.

"Thanks Ron. That's real nice," Hermione said.

"Ah, we're just kidding."

"Yeah, Fish just had a breakdown, he doesn't know what he's saying," Harry said.

"Hey!"

"And Ron hit his head on the floor."

"You're being very mean today," Fish whined.

"Oh come on. Come back to the common room and help me decide what 900 people to invite to my wedding. Ron, you're allowed to leave as soon as you wake up. You have no concussion," Harry said, grabbing Fish's arm.

"I don't want to plan your wedding anymore," Fish whined, trying to pull away.

"Oh come on Fishy, I need you," Harry said. And just like Harry said he would Fish gave in and followed.

"Fine, but if another person asks me what I'm doing with my life I'm going to join a druggie band."

"You will not."

"I will Harry, I will. And you'll be in some far off country where you can't stop me," Fish said as he followed Harry down the hall; the others followed behind them quietly shaking their heads.

"You forget that I have eyes everywhere."

"That's so very comforting."

"I know. Come on. Back to the room."

/-

When Bonnie came back from her final lessons with Snape, she found the others lying around the commons being lazy. Fish had passed out in a pile of papers that she suspected had something to do with her wedding, Ron and Hermionie were looking at another application for a loft with Neville, Ginny was looking over her notes, studying for the test she had in an hour and Harry was twirling Fish's blonde hair with his finger while he spoke Japanese over the telephone.

Bonnie walked over to where Fish was asleep and Harry quickly stopped playing with his hair after realizing he was doing it. Bonnie sat down, picked up a piece of paper beside Fish and found that it was a letter from their wedding planner.

_._

_Dear Sir Potter, _

_I deeply suggest that you make a timely effort in deciding on a church. I realize now that you are not being held captive by your friends but are merely ignoring your duties, which you asked for. Your fiancé needs to know which church to choose before she can pick a cake which is usually planned six months in advance. We are far behind and if you would like to have your wedding before you turn eighteen I expect you to try and make a solid effort at getting there. You have three months Sir Potter; that is not a long time to plan a wedding. You're lucky you got out of school early because I suspect you would not have started working until then. Please inform me or your fiancé as soon as you decide what you want to do or you will not be getting married till you are your father's age._

_your wedding planner_

.

Bonnie looked to Harry who was saying goodbye to his phone call. "You haven't chosen our church yet?"

Harry was listening to her and to his phone call, then looked around him at his pile and found what he was looking for and handed it to her. She looked at the page and then back up at him as he was hanging up. "I know, our wedding planner is yelling at me. But I told her I was being held hostage because I was trying to decide on a church but she kept bothering me. But I found one. This one has a little over one thousand seats so we can bring more people. And, if you want, you can get that really long veil you were talking about earlier cause the isle is long.

"Oh I decided against that. It takes away from the dress. I've almost decided on a veil so I might think about it," she said, looking over the picture quietly.

"I'm sorry it took so long. I know we're a little behind. But you know how picky I am when it comes to my religion."

"You know, she was just picking on you. I don't even need to know what church we're in to design the cake. Because, the cake isn't going in the church it's going in the hall, which has already been rented and paid for and—"

"Bonnie?" Harry interrupted. "Why do you sound so monotone?"

Bonnie sighed. "My grandmother, my grandfather, my mother, my aunt, your father and your mother have all agreed that we should have the traditional four day wedding."

"A four day wedding?" Harry asked curiously.

"Are we invited to the four extra days?" Hermionie asked from across the room.

"Um, can I find out what it is first?" Harry asked.

Hermionie sighed, "Fine," and went back to her paper.

Harry turned back to Bonnie.

"Well each day is a different event leading up to the big day. You know like my Bridal Shower in a few days. You get nothing in return. And then we have the garden party with gathering of the family; my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins from my mom's side; and then your parents and godfather and I guess Remus would be invited to."

"Does that mean we're not coming?" Ron asked.

Harry glared at them and turned back to Bonnie.

"And then we have the next day where friends and family are invited and the families get to know each other. Then we have the bachelor and bachelorette parties and then wedding rehearsal and the wedding. They all agree that the families don't know each other well enough."

"What, two Christmas's weren't enough for them?"

"I know. They're just going to get tired of each other. Why don't they all get to know each other at the wedding and at the reception? But apparently my parents and my grandparents did all of the traditions and so did your parents and now we have to do it to." Bonnie reached forward and took Harry's hands. "How are you doing with your color therapy with Josh?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm required to wear floral at the garden party, it's tradition."

"Your grandmother lives to torture me doesn't she?"

"It's one of her many pleasing hobbies I guess," she sighed lazily. "We won't even be able to hold hands because it's tradition for the bride to wear little white gloves."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It's your fault anyway you know. I'm not English, I'm Irish. It's your heritage that's torturing you."

Harry rolled his eyes. "And why don't we stick to Irish traditions?"

"Because it's tradition in the wizarding world to go along with the groom's heritage traditions because as soon as we're married I'll practically be English."

"You're practically English now. Your father is English."

"He doesn't count, he's not a wizard. If you were a muggle the wedding would be Irish tradition because I would have higher ranking than you do. But since you're not we have to go by blood and since we're both half-bloods we go by blood line. You're a descendent of Merlin and no matter how much my grandmother complains about it that gives you power over wedding and marriage traditions."

Harry stared at her carefully for a second. "I had no idea weddings in the wizarding world had to be so complicated."

"You should see how complicated getting a divorce is." They all looked at her surprised. "I was a witness at my aunt's divorce. You practically have to murder your husband to get out of a pureblood marriage."

"So if I have power over traditions then can't I choose not to make you wear white gloves?"

"I guess I worded it wrong. You don't have power, your heritage has power. You don't get to pick and choose, it all goes in there. We're lucky some traditions died out of the wizarding world or I would be getting whacked over the head with one of my old shoes. Weddings are weird."

"This sucks. Are we allowed to add our own traditions or is that illegal?"

"Um, well I guess you could," she said uncertainly. "No one said you couldn't. Like something from the Catholic religion you mean?"

"Sort of. We'll talk about it later. Now, we haven't talked about what you want the boys and me to wear. Are we picking it out ourselves? I know the clothes are your department."

"Actually I have this perfect idea in my head," she said excitedly, sitting up on her knees, ready to give her speech.

"Of course you do."

"Shush, it's perfect. Now I got this idea from the cake designer while our wedding planner was in the other room. She thinks the wedding planner is a little odd to. Anyway, she said that your wedding should be all about the bride right but it should also accent your groom because a wedding is sort of like you becoming one. And I told her about you and your punk/rebellious attitude and she gave me the great idea of you and your groomsmen wearing your tuxes but then you can wear Converse with them. That way you still have a little you while wearing a tux because we all know you really don't dress up. And then at the reception I've got this more casual dress that goes to the knees with a little blue sash and I'll wear white high top Converse and then you can wear a black suit and some sort of band T-shirt and your Converse. I don't even care if they're your worn out Converse. What do you think?"

Harry smiled. "I think its genius. I love that I'll be wearing my Converse at our wedding."

"Good. Because, you know, it doesn't have to be all formal. We're supposed to be ourselves at our wedding. And it's simple to."

"Great. The only part of our traditional wedding I'll enjoy is my shoes."

"What about your bride?" Bonnie asked.

"Do you really have to question that? You're the best part. What would a wedding be without a lovely bride?"

/-

Luna Lovegood joined them at the Gryffindor table in the middle of lunch that day and sat down beside Bonnie. "Did you see the new Year Books yet?"

"What yearbooks? Wizard schools don't give out year books," Harry said.

"Colin Creevy made them with some help from Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. The Daily Prophet paid for the paper and printing so that we don't have to pay for them," she said, placing a large book on the table. It was engraved; Hogwarts: Class of 2008.

"It's nice."

"Yeah. There are pictures of everyone in it. And a special section on the war and a memorial section to the Slytherin class of 2008. It's really nice."

"Where'd you get it?" Ron asked.

"Oh, the Ravenclaw prefect was handing them out in the common room earlier. Maybe yours hasn't arrived yet. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs get theirs first of course."

"Can I look at it?" Harry asked. Luna turned the book toward him. Glancing through it there were pictures from their entire seven years there, not just the last year. Some were obviously not taken by Colin Creevy as he wasn't there first year but they still had pictures. Draco Malfoy, his hair slicked back, was making threats to Harry for the first time, both of them holding their wands. "So much has changed." There were pictures of the other classes of course. Luna as a first year. It was odd to see her at eleven since Harry hadn't even noticed her till she was fourteen.

"Ginny, why are you eyeing Harry like that?" Fish asked, pointing to a picture of Ginny in first year, sitting in the common room looking at Harry dreamily.

"It was just a school girl crush. I was eleven okay? Don't act like you're all innocent."

"It's okay. The girls usually fall for Harry first," Fish sighed.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I was eleven."

"You don't have to explain yourself," he said, not listening. "It happens all the time."

"Shut up Fish," Harry said, rolling his eyes.

"Look, the TriWizard Tournament," Ron pointed out as they turned to fourth year. "Potter Stinks badges galore."

"Don't show those pages to any of your followers," Fish said. He turned back to second year. "This is the year you found out about the snakes right? Don't show that to your followers either. More therapy for Hyp if he finds out people deserted you before fourth year."

"Oh you shush. This is cool Luna." He handed her the book back.

"I was wondering if you'd all sign the back for me. Harry, you were the first person to talk to me without being cruel and you to Ginny. And I think of you all as good friends of mine."

"We are good friends Luna," Harry assured. "And we'll see each other even after school. You're invited to the wedding of course." Luna smiled. "You can bring Draco to."

"That's so nice of you. I'm honored to come to your wedding."

/-

The graduates of Hogwarts were awarded the chance to leave school early by two weeks because they had no final exams to take and it was suggested that they would go out for interviews and jobs or plan weddings in these extra weeks.

/-

Bonnie stood on a stool in front of a mirror in one of the many wedding gowns she was trying on at her house with Vera Wang. But she was no longer looking at the dress she was glancing at the small photograph in her hands: A girl with dark hair, dark eyeliner, big brown eyes and wearing skinny jeans and an oversized T-shirt. She looked beautiful walking down the streets of England, where the girl had arrived three weeks ago with her parents.

Bonnie sighed and mumbled, "I swear Harry's God just enjoys fucking with me," as she dropped the picture to her side.

"Bonnie, that was some foul comment," Ginny said as she leaned forward in her chair. "I like the other dress."

"Well why do they have to come now? I have some gorgeous, English, punk cousin who's traveled most of the globe and doesn't worship my fiancé and her and her parents have to bother me right before my wedding."

"You don't _have_ to invite them," Lily pointed out. "Though if your mother is anything like mine you may. I wasn't allowed to leave my sister out of my wedding. My sister didn't even _want_ to come."

"Why did she have to be pretty? She's been living in the Amazon. I studied the Amazon in school and I am damn well sure they do not sell skinny jeans. And it's so unfair that I can't even wear a pair of pants."

"I don't know what you're fretting about," Jackeline poked in. "You know Harry doesn't go for that. If he did he wouldn't be marring you. And are we forgetting, which would be hard since you're standing in a white wedding dress, that he is marrying you and she is coming to your wedding. I doubt there is a single chance in the entire planet that Harry would suddenly think; oh doesn't Bonnie's cousin look good in pants, I'll just leave my beautiful fiancé for her."

Lily nodded her agreement.

"I worry too much about it don't I?" Bonnie asked.

"This particular subject, yes," Ginny said.

"Maybe it's just the fact that I haven't told Harry they're coming yet. I haven't told my dad either and now I'm trying to freak out about the fact that my cousin could possibly be more Harry's type than I am rather than freaking about how I'm going to tell my father about this."

"I'm sure he'll understand," Jackeline said.

Bonnie sighed. "Ginny's right, I hate this dress. Let's try another one; maybe everything will look better in a different dress." She stepped down from the stool and headed back to the dressing room.

"Did Harry tell you if he's gotten further in his therapy yet?" Lily asked. "Because he won't tell me."

"Oh! He said, he'll hold my hand for five minutes while I'm wearing my white gloves but then his skin might set fire after that," Bonnie yelled to the room. "It makes me worry but I have high hopes."

"How's that dress going dear?" her mother asked.

"She's off to get the last one," Bonnie said, coming out in the short casual dress she'd arrived in. "We've ruled out the strapless dress. It wouldn't stay up," she said despondently. Vera came back with a dress for Bonnie and they both left for the other room to put it on. She stepped up onto the stool and sighed, running her fingers lightly over the sides of her dress. "I like this one," Bonnie said.

She wiped a tear off her cheek.

"Are you okay sweetie?" Lily asked.

"I just can't believe its happening; that I'm actually getting married to him. It just seems like I'm gonna wake up still wishing for it to happen." Ginny handed her a tissue to wipe her tears. She laughed. "Is it stupid of me to be so obsessed?"

"I've seen a lot of odd brides dear," Vera said. "You're not one of the oddest."

/-

"St. Jimmy! Stop it!" Fish said loudly as he sat beside his friend. "Don't say things like that. Mister Potter—James—he's lying isn't he?"

"No Fish. You are not invited to the Garden Party. It's not the end of the world boys. I went to my Garden Party without Sirius or Remus," James said as they all sat around at the table in the Potter mansion where they were supposed to be discussing transportation methods from all over to the church in Ireland.

"But you don't understand. Harry is socially inept. He can't hang around with people that he doesn't know. I have to introduce them to him first and then he slowly gets used to them after about a week to a month."

"He's right," Harry said. "I didn't even pick out most of my followers. I discovered some but Fish talked to them and then I met them and listened to them and made them sign stuff but I can't socialize on my own. Specially, not with snotty rich kids," he finished quietly.

"That's not true Harry. You had a job."

"Where I sat listening to people complain while I stuck a needle in their arm and gave a bit of advice every once-in-a-while."

"What about Hogwarts? You made friends there."

"And I wandered around quietly in my cousins hand-me downs and taped glasses. Ron was just luck of the draw really. He was interested in the fact that I was The-Boy-Who-Lived. And I was forced to cling to him because I had no one else."

"That's true, he was sort of clingy in first year," Ron said, somewhat joking but not really.

"So you're saying you can't go to your Garden Party without Fish because you're socially inept?"

"That's exactly what I am saying. Dad, just think about it. If we're including Sirius and Remus I have exactly four relatives on my side of this party, all of which Bonnie has already met. Bonnie, however, has an insurmountable amount of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and people her family is probably just pretending is family. I have to meet all of them, on my own. You have to accept that your son is a little whacked out in the head dad. I cannot socialize on my own."

"I'll be there."

"You just said you can't hang around me because Bonnie will have to spend time with you. And I would have been okay with just Bonnie instead of Fish but we're not spending the day together anyway."

"Harry, these are the rules of tradition. We've already made arrangements with the other family in agreement to traditions and how the rules would be set."

Harry groaned. "You know, this is why I killed Voldemort. So that we wouldn't have to put up with stupid pureblood traditions like this."

"These are not _stupid pureblood traditions Harry_! They're part of your heritage and you'll accept them."

"I didn't agree to this stupid plan in the first place. It was the adult's idea. The people who are not about to get married. I have enough stupid requirements I have to fulfill on the day of the wedding that I haven't informed my fiancé of yet. Traditions and requirements are starting to get on my nerves."

"Harry," James said, sitting down beside Harry and turning to face him. "One, you wanted to get married and plan a wedding in this short amount of time and so early before I had the chance to learn that you were socially inept."

"It was kind of obvious sir—"

"Shut up! Two, you're just going to have to deal with Bonnie's relatives for the few hours that the party lasts. And they can't be all that bad right?"

"They're probably all just like Jacobie. Maybe without the expectation of marriage to Bonnie."

"Why don't you ask Bonnie's grandfather to walk around with you? You like him don't you?"

"He wouldn't agree to do it. He thinks my problem is ridiculous and that I should just get over myself. But it's not my fault I have all these odd problems. I had a strange childhood, people didn't like me and they said mean things about me. And so now I don't like people and I become very uncomfortable around new people unless there is someone close to me at my side."

"What did you do for the two years when you went away to Victoria's and Bonnie wasn't there?" Sirius asked.

"I terrorized the school, setting boy's hair on fire, shaving their heads, tying their legs together, breaking their fingers…"

"Wait, you only picked on boys," Ron pointed out.

"Yes, I can't pick on girls. They were never as mean to me so I feel no need to punish them."

"So you're obviously not socially inept around them," Ron said. "Why don't you just hang around all the girls at the party?"

"Oh I'm sure Bonnie would love that."

"Isn't carrying Prose around with you close enough?" Remus asked.

Harry reached into his coat pocket and let Prose run up his arm as he looked at him. "I guess he would suffice. Fucking hell, I'm not gonna have to wear color to am I?"

"Not if you don't want to," James said. "I personally wore a very dark blue. Pastels are not my color either. I think it has something to do with the fact that we're not blondes."

"That could be true, Fish pulls off pink very well," Harry said.

/-

Bonnie sat in the waiting room to the Prime Minister's office, trying not to pay attention to the secretary looking at her from the corner of her eyes and the man to her left looking at her legs. Harry's guard, Chip Dasin, turned his head slowly to the man with a deadly glare. The man quickly turned his head away and moved to a different seat. Bonnie pushed down at her skirt. Harry had sent his guard with her since she refused to let him come with her. She was here to tell her father about the letter she'd received from his parents. She wasn't exactly sure what his reaction was going to be.

"Miss McNeal, your father is ready to see you now," the secretary said, seemingly stuck on two thoughts. At the last moment she pulled out a small notebook and pen. "Um, Miss McNeal, do you think I could have your autograph? I don't mean to be rude…."

"No problem." She took the pen and quickly signed her name.

"Thank you," the woman said, glancing it over.

"No problem." Bonnie headed into her father's office, leaving the guard at the door in the waiting room. "Hello daddy."

"Morning sweetheart." He sent out two other men that were in his office so they could be alone. "I wasn't expecting a call from you. I thought you'd be knee-deep in wedding plans with your mother. I'm not expected to wear pastels to that garden party am I? British men cannot pull that off you know?"

"I've heard Fish can," Bonnie said, sitting down in the chair in front of his desk. "But no, you don't have to. I doubt Harry will be."

"Good. Do you have your outfit? Vera Wang being good to you?"

"Oh yes, very. Though Grandmama has gone wild with her opportunity to plan the Garden Party without any word from the Potters and is pulling out everything she can. I think she's trying to impress them. You may have to ask her about the pastels."

He groaned. "No, I shall just come in whatever I like. I'm the father of the bride; I can wear whatever I like." He sat down behind his desk. "So, what is this little meeting about? We could have just spoken at home you know, I'd be back tonight."

"I know, but I thought I should just finally get this discussion over with."

"Discussion?"

"Yes. You see, a week ago I got this letter…from your father."

"My father?"

"Mhmm and he was asking me if he and his wife and your brother, his wife, and their daughter and your sister were invited to my wedding. They said they were family—"

"Family my arse," Cameron mumbled.

"They sounded really nice about it."

"Of course they did. They're about to become a close relation to the Savior of the world." Bonnie looked down at her knees. "The last time we saw each other they said they'd be spitting on my grave glad to be rid of me. Your marriage to Harry is the only reason I can see for them to want to see us again."

"Isn't there a chance that they saw me in the newspaper and thought, now is the time for reconciliation?"

"That's probably exactly what they thought Bonnie. Let's reconcile with our son and his daughter. Our son is the Prime Minister; his daughter cured cancer and is soon to be married to a Potter and the Savior of the World. Now is a great time to get back together."

"Dad…"

"Bonnie, I know you would love to meet them but you were only five when it all happened." He walked over to the other side of his desk, sat in the other chair and pulled it closer to her. He held her face in his hands. "Dear, I know it would mean everything to you for them to truly just want to apologize and be family again but I truly never want to see hide or hair of those people again. You and your mother are my only family and I like it that way."

"I know daddy. But…wouldn't you love to have those dreadful people at your beautiful daughter's party, their shabby Amazon clothes, begging for you to forgive them because you're so much better than they could ever be."

"That would be nice to see dear but I'm perfectly happy without it." He stared at her for a moment, watching her expressions carefully. "Do you really want them to come?"

"Well…I kind of hope for the chance that they'll apologize just because and that maybe we'll be able to forgive them."

Cameron smiled sadly. "Don't you think you have enough relatives? You know Harry only has about five, and two of them aren't even blood related."

"But he has millions of followers to make up for it. I have two true girlfriends and both of them were Harry's first. I need a large amount of family."

Cameron sighed, pulling his hands away from her face and sitting back in his chair, running his hand behind his neck. "Sweetheart, you know I want to give you whatever I can to make you happy. So it's your choice on whether or not you decide to invite them, but I personally never want to talk to them again."

"Well you don't have to. I just want to see if they'll be real with an apology or if they just want to meet my future husband."

"I really hope you're not disappointed dear," he said sadly, sighing and leaning forward in his chair.

"So do I."

/-

The next day was Ron's interview with the Unspeakables at the Ministry of Magic and the whole group was waiting in the Weasely kitchen at The Burrow waiting for the news on how it went. Mrs. Weasley was already pacing the floor, though was an hour until Ron would actually get back.

"My boy, an Unspeakable. Such a prestigious position," she mumbled to herself, completely ignorant to the other things going on in the room.

Everyone had turned their attention to Bonnie and Bill's fiancé, Fluer, who were currently locked in a glaring match. Extreme glaring. If you put your hand in front of their eyes it would fall off.

"Isn't it funny that I'm getting married before you dear cousin? You had always told me I never would and I would end up a spinster," Bonnie said.

"I'm getting married right after you, _dear cousin_. And my weddings going to be so much better anyway. We'll have only the best guests. Not family and the Saviors raggedy friends."

"Those raggedy friends fought in the war," Fish said defensively.

"My wedding is going to be beautiful. You're just jealous that I didn't ask you to be a bridesmaid and you're sad you can't wear one of my beautiful dresses," Bonnie said.

"You didn't ask me because you know I would steal your thunder and everyone would be looking at me."

"You're so selfish Fluer."

"I am not one bit selfish. I am a perfectly unselfish person."

"Of course you are. Someone should be constantly handing out awards, what with all your good deeds. Where's your cure for cancer?"

"Oh, well now you're just gloating Bonnie," Ginny said, finishing off the plait in her hair.

"I can gloat to Fluer."

"No you can't. Grandmama would hate you for it and I'll tell her you were being so very vulgar to me."

"She won't care what you say about me. I'm about to be a bride and then Grandmama will love me more than any of her other grandchildren despite my clothes and actions."

"I very much doubt that. You're such an improper girl and she doesn't even like your husband."

"Doesn't matter, the Potter's are letting her plan the Garden Party and she's happy as a clown."

Fluer gasped. "That's completely improper of them."

"Doesn't matter to Grandmama, you know how much she loves a beautiful Garden Party. And the British won't be forcing me to wear white gloves. I'll just have to wear a bunch of flowers in my face."

"I hope you're not allergic."

"I hope you don't fade in your white dress."

"You to."

"I've already found my dress. It looks perfect. I'll look so classic, like Grace Kelly at her wedding."

"Yes, except she married a prince. You're just marrying the war hero. You're not dating the leader, just the boy who fights for him."

Out of the corner of her eye Hermionie could have sworn she saw a flicker of surprise in Fish's eyes as he glanced carefully toward Bonnie and Fluer, as though he thought they knew something they shouldn't. But he looked away as the conversation continued.

"Well we all know Prince William isn't the most attractive royal. And everyone loves the warrior. They're much hotter."

"But they're ones you have sex with when the Prince gets bored with you. I think you're going a little _back_wards sweetness. Oh! But you'll never get the Prince anyway, so more power to you."

"I feel so sorry for Bill. You're lucky you have that unnatural power over men or you'd never have swept him up."

"Excuse me!"

They all turned to look at Harry coming down from the stairs.

"I'm all for your evil bickering but I am _trying_ to talk to the Pope in Italy and he doesn't know how to use a phone. So could you please quiet it down a little?" He stomped back up the stairs talking loudly in German.

Bonnie turned back to Fluer smiling. "My husband knows the Pope. And I recently had tea with the Queen."

Fluer leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "I'm bored with fighting with you. Go bore someone else with your gloating."

"So I win," Bonnie said, sighing into her chair as well.

A few minutes later the silence was interrupted by the sound of someone hitting the floor as they fell out of a floor and they all waited quietly in the kitchen until Ron walked in, surprised to see them all there. "Hey."

"So…how'd the interview go?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"WAIT!" Harry ran down the stairs. "Okay, I'm here. How'd it go?"

"Well…for one it was Dumbledore who suggested me for the job," he said as he sat down in a chair at the table. "He said I had a talent, for what I'm not sure. And so when I got to the interview they asked me about my experience and however much you prepare for any interview, knowledge in your experience for this job is hard answer as I'm not entirely sure anyone knows what Unspeakables' do, hence the name. So I told them this. They thought this funny, which made me a little uncomfortable but…I stayed calm. And—"

"Ronald, did you get some training for this job while you were there because your diverting tactics have improved," Harry said.

Ron smiled. "I got the job. I start training on Monday."

"That's great!" Everyone cheered as Mrs. Weasley pulled her son into a bone crushing hug.

"I guess it doesn't hurt that you've actually been in the Department of Mysteries before," Ginny said.

"Yes, and they told me to tell the rest of you thanks for the mess you left behind."

"Hey, we were trying to fight death eaters!" Hermionie said.

.

.

.


	46. Eight Days

Next chapter. Thanks for the reviews.

Enjoy!

.

.

Chapter 45

Eight Days

It was the day. Bonnie shook in her shoes and her lacy, black dress. It was not the beginning of the four days of their wedding; no that was four days away now. Today was the day she had told herself she would tell Harry about the other side of her family that may be coming to the wedding but definitely coming to the Garden Party.

It was eleven o'clock at night, Harry was in the bathroom preparing for bed and Bonnie was sitting at the end of the bed waiting for him. She would have just went to sleep peacefully and waited till morning to tell him but he would be forced out of his house with the other men by his mother, who was planning Bonnie's bridal shower.

"God I'm tired," Harry said as he walked out of the bathroom, freshly showered and smelling of soap and fresh clothes. "We should go straight to bed. No snogging tonight I'm afraid, darling." He crawled into bed and wrapped his arm around her waist. "Why are you sitting at the end of the bed? Do you want me to sleep alone?" He nuzzled her neck and kissed her shoulder. "We're getting married in almost eight days and yet I feel as though these are our last chances to be alone. Maybe it's because they're our last nights alone as boyfriend and girlfriend, St. Jimmy and his Pet and soon we shall be alone together as husband and wife." He tightened his arms around her waist and pulled her back against his chest.

Bonnie smiled and put her hand on Harry's where it rested on her stomach. "Harry?"

"Mhmm," he groaned, his breath caressing her neck as he sighed, breathing her in.

"We need to talk about something."

Harry pulled away and she laid her head back on his shoulder to look at him. "What about?"

"About my dad's family."

Harry pulled away and she turned to face him, kneeling. "They're not dead?"

Bonnie smiled sadly. "No, they're not dead; though my father would probably say they'd be easier to deal with now if they were."

"So…what about them? Why are you telling me about them now?"

"Because they sent me a letter. They want to come to the Garden Party. And I invited them. So I thought now may be a good time to tell you about them."

"Okay. I'm listening."

Harry was always such a good listener, he paid attention to everything she said, listened attentively. But at the moment Bonnie almost didn't want him to be such a good listener. She was the semi-normal one. But she told him. The same things she told Ginny at the beginning of summer and some about the conversation she had with her father. There was silence for a moment as she finished.

Harry sighed. "I'd agree with your father. They don't deserve to come. They don't deserve to know you and you don't need their apologies."

"I know I don't. But I want them anyway."

Harry looked down at his sheets. "Why didn't you want to tell me?"

"I don't know. Your family doesn't like you and you had to live with them. I just thought you wouldn't think it was that big of a deal."

"It is a big deal. They were mean to you and your family. I can be mean to them right? I mean, I didn't invite the evil half of my family. I'll have to pick on yours."

"Good. Then we'll know if they're here for me or you."

"Wonderful. Now come on, we should get to sleep so you're still awake at your bridal shower." He kissed her cheek and pulled her toward the pillows. He pulled up the covers around them and wrapped his arms around her. "Night my pet."

The next morning Harry was awakened by his mother who was telling him quietly to meet his father downstairs so they could leave.

"It's seven a.m. mum. You couldn't possibly be planning the party already."

"It's an afternoon party. Now get out of bed."

"No, I'm tired. Come back later."

Lily sighed. "Bonnie." Bonnie groaned tiredly in response. "Your mother wanted to surprise you but since you'll only be in the company of women today during your party it's tradition that you're allowed to wear pants if you'd like."

Bonnie shot up in bed and looked at her. "Are you serious?"

"Yep. And if you hurry and get Harry out of the house your grandmother and mother have a line of Marc Jacobs pants and Lucky jeans downstairs waiting for you."

Bonnie crawled over Harry's body to get out of bed. "Get up Harry. I can't wear pants with you here."

Harry sighed, pulling himself up in bed. "I've been given up for a pair of pants." He sat back and rubbed his face. "I've seen you in pants before."

"But you weren't supposed to. Don't make me talk about it, just leave so I can try them on."

"You women are so mean to me lately. I buy rings and say nice things and then I get kicked out of my own bed and house for forbidden clothing."

"Don't complain Harry," Lily said, pulling her son out of bed and moving him toward the bathroom. "You don't want to be here when the other ladies come over. We'll be discussing lady things that you won't want to hear about. Besides, shouldn't you be taking advantage of all the time you have left with Fish?"

Harry closed the door without answering her.

/-

Bonnie sat happily at the end of the table as they all sat around tea and fantastic looking candies and cakes. Harry's mother really was a fantastic party planner.

Though those women that were not in her family were allowed to be wearing pants everyone else wore a skirt or dress to her party to single her out. She enjoyed it. A pair of designer skinny jeans that buttoned up at the ankles and a pair of Harry's Converse that he said she could borrow. The only part of her normal apparel was a silk blue dress with a bow. Fluer was sitting across from her, smiling evilly, but nothing could get to her today.

"Alright," Lily said, bringing a muggle radio to the table and put it beside her chair. "Ginny said that Harry has this rule where if you want to listen to anything besides Punk you can't do it around him. And because you're going to be around him all the time once you're married we thought we would play everything except Harry's favorite songs."

"I doubt Harry will yell at me for playing other types of music. Unless it's 90's American pop music like Britney Spears and N*Sync but I doubt I'll ever feel the need to listen to them."

"Well we're listening to it anyway." Lily sat down and pressed play and Kelly Clarkson came over the radio.

"Does your husband know you have this CD?" Ginny asked.

"Actually I got it from Sirius who received it in one of his fan letters. They wanted him to listen to one of the songs."

"I don't think I'd ever get the urge to listen to Kelly either."

"Elton John is up next."

"Alright, enough of this talk," Ginny said. "I want her to open presents."

"No. No presents yet. We do that later. We're playing a game first. Now, in your invitations everyone was asked to bring their purses. Does everyone have theirs?" Everyone held up their purse. "Good. So we're going to be playing Purse Raid throughout the day. I heard about this one from a friend who visited me from America while I was pregnant and she played it at a jewelry party. But I'm changing it a little. You're supposed to make a list but I'm going with the alphabet. So the letters are all mixed up on these little cards and Miss Ginny here will be pulling one every fifteen minutes or so and whoever is the first one take something out of their bag that starts with that letter wins a prize. Everyone understand?" She turned to Ginny who pulled the first letter from the pile. "The letter is V."

Everyone dug into the bottom of their purses until Bonnie pulled out a bottle labeled Veritaserum.

"Why do you have Veritaserum in your bag? Isn't that illegal?"

Bonnie lowered her head, ashamed. "You never know when you'll need it for something. I have lots of things in my purse." She fiddled around, putting the bottle back in her purse.

/-

While Bonnie and all the women were having their quaint party in the Potter mansion the men were either at work or wandering around aimlessly in the Potter's limousine. They had already picked up the women's dresses and their own tuxes, which Harry hated, for the Potter ball that would play out the day after the Garden Party.

"Don't we hire people to do these kinds of things?" Harry whined, glancing at a black gown hanging beside him.

"Your mother asked us to pick them up since we're not doing anything," James said.

"And why aren't we doing anything? Shouldn't I get a party if Bonnie gets one?" Harry asked, adjusting the St. Jimmy book in his lap and continued to scribble in it with a quill and ink.

"No, men don't get a shower we just wait until the women leave so we can head back inside. It is the way of the world," James sighed.

"You're awfully depressing today James," Sirius said, looking down at his friend beside him. "Whatever could be the matter?"

James looked across the short distance between the seats at his son who was clearly recording in his perfect script again the workings of his life. James grabbed a piece of paper from the storage shelf beside the seats and took up a quill as well and wrote a quick note, ignoring that Harry was glancing at him from the corner of his eye.

James handed the note to Sirius.

_**.**_

_**I don't want to go to the Garden Party either. I regret letting the Irish take over the first party. Lily is only pleased that she got to plan the bridal shower and the second party. I fear this initial party may be a bit of a disaster. **_

.

Sirius nodded to acknowledge the note before passing it to Remus. "Are you bringing little Sirius to the party?"

"Lily would like to. His first birthday is coming up in just two days," James smiled, happy to change the subject. The three men turned as they all noticed Harry shift himself subconsciously in his seat, pulling his legs up Indian-style before returning to his notes. James turned back to Sirius sadly.

"Inviting everyone or a small personal party?" Remus asked.

"Personal. I don't really want a lot of people at the house when we're going to be planning the second of Harry's parties."

"Don't lower your second son's standards just for my party. If he's going to be raised as a snotty rich pureblood we should start the training on his first birthday shouldn't we?"

"That's quite rude Harry. Not all purebloods are conceited as you think we are," James said.

"I didn't say you all are. I just said he would be raised as one. I can see it now. I wasn't there for you to spoil as you raised me so he'll be getting twice as much and he'll drown in it all; discovering a love for being spoiled and learning that anything he desires is his because he deserves it. He'll be conceited and spoiled, as any expensively raised child should end up being."

"Don't wish so little on your little brother Harry," James said, sadly. He hated when Harry so calmly brought up the fact that James didn't get to raise his first born. As though he didn't realize how much it hurt James to think about the cruel muggles abusing his son as he grew up.

"I don't wish anything but happiness on my little brother." He set his journal down on the seat beside him and reached across him to take his father's hand, surprise setting his father's features at the action. "Don't worry dad, I'm sure you'll do a great job this time around now that Voldemort is dead. Cause you won't have to worry about that anymore. And if it makes you feel any better you did a very good job with me before you died. The doctors and specialists at my special school said that if it hadn't been for the great care I received from you and mother in my first year of life I would have been retarded, but instead I'm a genius. You're such good parents you helped me overcome Shaken Baby Syndrome." Harry patted his father's hand before leaning back in his seat with his book again.

James let what Harry said settle for a moment before talking. "Is that true?"

"Well, they're not sure if it was Shaken Baby Syndrome but when I stole my hospital records it looked pretty bad."

"Harry I—"

"Don't dad! I'm really tired of this horrid conversation as I'm sure you are. So let's switch to something else. Such as… what are you wearing to the Garden Party? I saw that note you passed to Sirius. I'm not blind you know. I don't need glasses anymore and I'm very good at reading upside down and backwards from years of studying Da Vinci."

"It's very rude to invade people's private notes Harry," Sirius said.

"And it's also very rude to give up Garden's Parties to the Irish if you're not sure about it. Now we all have to suffer with the color scheme. Bonnie will be provoked by her grandmother to put on makeup and lipstick all for the fun of watching me squirm because I refuse to kiss her when she wears cosmetics."

"You're so odd Harry," Remus said.

"I know. It's a tragedy I'm not normal like you three," Harry said sarcastically.

Harry spent the rest of the day in the limo looking over papers and talking on his phone in foreign languages to people James, Sirius and Remus had never met before, and they couldn't make out the conversations anyway but they were sure it had something to do with his army. When he would speak English they couldn't follow the one-sided conversations. They were bored and Harry was supposedly talking about the recovery of the war.

/-

"So how was your party?" Harry asked, as he and Bonnie headed to bed that night.

Bonnie curled up beside Harry as he sat up in bed, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his hip. "It was lovely. Your mother throws a very fun party. I think her and Ginny and Hermionie are planning my bachelorette party too, so that should be fun to look forward to. I got some lovely gifts too. What did you and the other boys do while you were out of the house?"

"Well Fish was busy planning his trip to Japan with Tim and Tom so I let them go do whatever they wanted and my father, Sirius and Remus and I just talked and wandered around in the limousine, picked up your dresses for the second party, got attacked by fans when they realized who was in it, ate lunch while my guards swatted off the fans…it was a fun evening."

"Well good, I'm glad you enjoyed it." She tugged at the edge of his pajama bottoms. "Let's go to sleep now."

Harry slid down in the covers and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. "Night pet."

"Night Harry."

/-

Two days later they were celebrating little Sirius's first birthday. Only the closest family came, along with Bonnie's aunt, as Sirius's girlfriend, and Tonks as Remus's.

"Harry, aren't you going to wish your brother a happy birthday?" James asked, sitting beside his son at the table as people entered in the ballroom where they were talking and waiting for the cake before presents.

"Happy birthday Sirius," Harry said, looking down at the phone in his hand.

James looked down at the phone in Harry's hand and then back up at Harry. "What's the matter?"

"Fish didn't show up today, he hasn't called, and he won't pick up his phone," Harry said worriedly. "Ginny says he hasn't called her either."

"Well…I'm sure he's just occupied with Japan. You know, you're planning your wedding and he's planning the time he has to spend without you."

"He's never gone this long without calling me."

"Maybe he's prepping you and himself for the long road ahead," James offered, switching Sirius to his other leg.

"I guess. I don't like it," Harry whined.

"Well get your mind off that and join the rest of us for cake. You and Bonnie can practice shoving it in each other's faces."

Harry sighed and set his ringer to a louder setting before tucking it inside his pocket before following his father to the ballroom to celebrate Sirius's birthday. James wrapped his free arm around Harry's shoulders to try and comfort him but only seemed to make him tense. He'd have to ask Harry about it later, he didn't like that he made his son uncomfortable. That wasn't the reaction a father should get from his son. He thought maybe he could ask Josh but that may be an invasion of Harry's privacy. Though he worried that it would be something he could fix and he wasn't doing anything because he couldn't figure out the problem.

/-

In the middle of the night, while everyone was fast asleep in bed Harry crawled out of bed, extracting Bonnie's arms from around his waist and crawling out slowly so as not to wake her, and headed down the hallway to little Sirius's separate room. He opened the door and snuck in, closing the door quietly behind him. His parents were in the connected room beside this one. He walked quietly over to the crib where little Sirius was sleeping and pulled a chair up beside the crib and set his head on his folded arms.

"Hey buddy," Harry whispered, reaching out to touch his hand. "It's so much easier to like you when you're asleep."

Little Sirius whimpered in his sleep, slowly waking up as Harry stroked his little hand with his finger. When he looked up at Harry his face filled with color and a large smile as he cooed. He was much bigger than the last time Harry was alone with him. A little over a year and Harry couldn't imagine how time seemed to fly so quickly. Sirius already had a full head of auburn colored hair and he recognized Harry immediately.

"Hey little guy, you really should be asleep but this is the only time I feel safe talking to you. Can't have people like father and mother thinking I can stand children, that wouldn't work for my image. You're still sticky and gross during the day but when you're asleep after a clean bath I can tolerate you. But you know these little meetings of ours will have to end once you start learning to talk."

Sirius giggled, making sounds using the only vowels and consonants he knew.

"Yeah, you just stick to the broken English buddy. We'll get along famously that way. I just wanted to visit because we haven't talked in a while and it's your birthday so I thought I should wish you a happy birthday. You should just know how lucky you are to know that your parents are going to be there even after you cross the age of two. You will never have to know Uncle Vernon's abuse or your cousin Dudley's nasty remarks or aunt Petunia telling you what a disgusting yet pretty little boy you are as she gives you looks you don't want to understand."

He glanced back at Sirius, breaking from his thoughts as the child wrapped his fist around Harry's fingers. "And even if something happens to someone you have others available to take care of you before anyone resorts to them: Sirius, Remus, and brother Harry if it came down to it. I took care of everything, so you have no need to worry through your childhood. No evil men or abuse from your own relatives. And no one will have to send you anywhere horrible to keep you safe with blood protection even if it's not protecting you from other evils." He looked down at Sirius as he looked up at him, mumbling to himself and hardly listening. Harry sighed. "You're better at this than Josh." He put his hand over Sirius's fist and patted his hand. "Happy birthday Sirius. When you're older we'll hang out more, I promise. Maybe by then I won't care that dad will always like you more than he will ever like me. He'll always love us, I guess, though I'm sure he loves me less than he claims. But I'm not normal and I didn't grow up with him. He doesn't know me like he'll get to know you and I have this feeling that he wouldn't really want to. He doesn't deserve to be damned with me as a son. He deserves you. The one he can actually see playing in his first Quidditch game and cheer him on, be proud of him when he hears that his son got on the Quidditch team in his first year, that they made an exception for you. He'll be able to be proud of you." He glanced at his brother. "I'll see you again soon buddy. Maybe we can have a more pleasant conversation next time."

Harry released Sirius's hand and stood to head back to the door when a little voice caught his attention. "'ar-ry?" Harry turned back to Sirius who was reaching out his arms to him as he stood up in his crib.

"What did you say?"

"'ar-ry," he said more excitedly.

Harry ran over to Sirius and took his hands in his. "No, don't say that. Say dada or mama or something. Don't say my name. People will suspect something. Say daddy or dada…that will make dad happy. Can you say that? Say dada."

Sirius giggled. "'ar-ry."

"No! Sirius…." Harry groaned. "You're really not doing anything for this relationship you know?"

Sirius just giggled and reached out for his brother.

"No! I tried to be friends but you're just making it complicated. You go to sleep now and we'll pretend I was never here and we've never talked and you never said my name."

Sirius made up more words and Harry sighed before heading back out of the room.

/-

The front door slammed open and they heard it all the way from the dining room where they were all seated for breakfast the day after little Sirius's birthday and one day before The Garden Party. They all turned to the door to the dining room as Fish flew into the room with Tim and Tom following calmly behind him.

"Jimmy! You'll never guess what I've been up to," Fish said excitedly.

"Of course I couldn't. You haven't called me in four days," Harry said coolly with a hidden air of anger.

"Oh, don't be upset with me. I have a story that will completely excuse me."

"You know my brother's birthday was yesterday and neither you nor Josh would pick up their phone to come suffer through it with me."

"I'm sorry, I truly am. You can yell at me for it later. But let me tell you about my news," Fish said excitedly.

"Fine, what is your great news then?"

"Okay," Fish said, turning to face Harry in his chair even though the whole table was listening closely for the story. "So Tim, Tom and I were in Japan and looking for apartments with their boyfriends and I was having this horrible time because they were all yelling at me for complaining about how depressed I was about having to live in a two bedroom apartment with them. So then we all went clubbing, and don't worry Ginny," he said, turning to her, "it was a gay bar. I didn't think dirty things back at them. But anyway, while we were exiting the club, me too depressed to drink and sober and the other four falling on their asses drunk, just guess who's shoes clean, little Tim happened to throw up on?"

"Ken Watanabe?" Harry guessed.

"No. Johnny Rotten. And he actually remembered me from the Punk Association party which is so cool. But cooler than that is that after sending the drunks back to the hotel I left with Johnny and his band and we got to talking and drinking a little. And we got on the subject of my obsession with him and the Sex Pistols unparticular and he said "how good are you at playing guitar?" And I told him I can play all of the Sex Pistols songs and more and I even wrote some songs of my own on my three guitars and he seemed just a little bit impressed. But I mean, this is Johnny Rotten so I was elated about anything. And so, just as we were leaving the bar, he asked me the most wonderful question my ears have ever beheld."

"Wanna have sex?" Harry guessed sarcastically.

"Stop ruining the story Harry. No, he didn't ask that. I'd heard that comment enough in the gay bars earlier. He asked me if I wanted to be a Sex Pistol."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Is this one of those stories where you forget to tell me until the end that this is another one of your dreams?"

"No, he actually asked. And I said, "I've always wanted to be a Sex Pistol since I first heard "Anarchy in the UK." And so," he said slowly for the dramatic effect, "he asked me what I would think of being the lead singer of the new Sex Pistols band."

He was silent as he waited for Harry's reaction.

"Are you kidding?"

"No, I'm not! Isn't it wonderful? My deepest wish has come true and I'm going to be a Sex Pistol."

"You're going to be the lead singer of the Sex Pistols?" Harry asked, smiling at his friend.

"Yes. And Johnny Rotten is going to help me find a band and we're going to tour with his band within the year."

They both looked at each other and started laughing. The rest of the table didn't know whether Harry had realized it was all a joke and Fish realized that Harry figured it out, or if they were just laughing because they were insane. Suddenly Harry leaned forward and pulled Fish into a hug and then they were hopping up and down in front of their chairs, excitedly as they yelled things about Fish being a Sex Pistol.

"Let's call Avin and shove this in his face. He said you were nuts to think this would happen." They both left the room yelling profanity and reciting lyrics from Sex Pistols' songs.

.

.

.


	47. Four Days

Chapter 46

Four Days

"Harry, you cannot deny me this. It's a party. You said special occasions. Come on. Just a little blush, eye shadow, and lipstick," Bonnie whined.

"No."

"Why are you being so mean to me? I can't wear flowers in my face if I'm all pale and washed out." She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind as he was walking away from her. "Please. I'll let you do it. You can put on my shadow and everything in whatever varying amounts you want as long as I can wear it. You've worn more makeup than I have anyway. I don't even know how to put on makeup. Please."

Harry sighed. "Fine. But if you're wearing makeup, I'm wearing eyeliner."

"Fine."

Lily walked into the lounge a half hour later as they were both sitting on the floor in the middle of the room with Fish sitting beside Harry with Ginny, both watching with mild interest as Harry used liquid eyeliner on Bonnie. Ron and Hermionie sat on the other side and Tim and Tom were lounging on the couch rearranging Harry's cell phone and sending out a mass text message about Harry's new number, which they changed yearly.

"I admire your courage Bonnie. I'd never let my husband hold any type of makeup toward my face," Lily said, sitting herself down in a chair by Ron and Hermionie.

"I have full trust in his abilities," Bonnie said with her eyes closed. "I've never put on makeup and Harry wears it all the time. Besides, Harry's an artist, he has a steady hand."

"Yeah mum," Harry agreed.

"Why didn't you ask Ginny?"

"Ginny doesn't wear makeup either."

"I think you're sexist mother. Not trusting me with makeup just because I'm a man," Harry said sarcastically, glancing at her.

"And what was the compromise for you wearing makeup Bonnie?" Lily asked, as Mooshie-mooshie curled up on the chair beside her, begging for attention.

"I have to let Harry wear makeup to."

Lily sighed and glanced at Harry. "My son," he said sarcastically.

"You shush mother. I've seen the pictures of father during his time at school. He wore more makeup than I do."

"No, Sirius wore more makeup than you did when he was going through his serious rebel phase. Your father found it fun to dress as a girl. He told me over and over that it was a prank but I will be haunted forever by the sight of James in one of my skirts and telling me, 'it's quite breezy isn't it?'"

"I promise to never put on a skirt mother," Harry reassured as he turned back to Bonnie with more liquid liner.

"Bless you dear. Now we just have to worry the gene was passed onto your brother." She sighed. "I should have prayed for a girl."

"Yes, you should have. I would have enjoyed a sister," Harry said. "Now when little Sirius learns to walk I'll have the sudden urge to be mean and push him over and hold him upside down by his legs. It's just my nature and I won't be able to help it. I'll be such a horrible brother."

"And if you had a sister?" Lily asked.

"Well I couldn't pick on little Sirius if he was a girl. Girls are so fragile," Harry smiled, caressing Bonnie's cheek gently making her giggle with her eyes still closed.

"Would you like another sibling Harry?" Lily asked.

"No, we shouldn't risk another boy," he deadpanned.

"Lucky you weren't born into the Weasley family," Lily said.

"Yeah, can you imagine Ginny flirting at twelve with her own brother," Harry joked and Ginny quickly swatted him over the shoulder. "Hey, I could smudge. This is liquid liner."

"Oh please, you didn't even flinch."

"So, mother. Where is my young, slobbery brother this morning?" Harry asked, returning to Bonnie's makeup again.

"He's with your father. He and the boys are all outside with the nanny, who is protecting your brother and watching to make sure no one gets out a broom."

"What are you wearing to the party Mrs. Potter?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, a yellow dress, a little below the knee, thin strapped. It's cute. You know, I've just realized how Harry's knighting works to my advantage. I can still be the only Mrs. Potter as long as I want, or at least until little Sirius gets married, because our little Bonnie will be Lady Potter. Isn't that lovely, what a nice title."

Bonnie smiled. "I want to be Lady St. Jimmy," Bonnie smiled, glancing at Harry.

Harry smiled at her and closed the cap on the makeup. He then sighed and caressed her cheek. "I won't be able to tell the difference between your natural blush and the one I put on. And your natural flush is so pretty," he said before kissing her cheek.

"You're so weird. I'm only wearing it for a day," she said. "What are you wearing to the party?" she asked Harry.

"I don't know," he said, looking nervous. "Dad's picking it out with Josh's help. Josh is using clothing as my therapy. And I swear to God if he tries to persuade me to wear a white shirt I will go shirtless or not at all."

"I'm sure they won't be that drastic darling."

"They could. Josh is going nuts now. Says I'm just being stubborn because I won't go into my unconscious and I told him he wouldn't want to go into my unconscious either. I've worked really hard to block some things out and they're not coming back so that I can wear a white t-shirt."

"What about me?"

"I can touch your white dress while we dance and stand near you while we wed but I refuse to wear it myself. Besides, I'll look washed out. I'm too pale to wear white. Avin told me so."

"The vampire who wears white collared shirts all the time told you that you were too pale to wear white?" Fish asked.

Bonnie grabbed the mirror off the floor to check the makeup that Harry did. "It looks lovely Harry. But you didn't put much on."

"I know."

"Then why were you complaining?"

"Because my dear, if any part of your beautiful face is hidden from my eyes I shall be in vast grievances," he smiled lightly, placing a chaste kiss on her lips.

"How romantic you are sometimes Harry," Lily said. "You must have gotten it from me. Your father has not a romantic bone in his body."

"How did he snag you then?" Harry asked.

"It was between him and Gilderoy Lockhart and your father was just the smallest bit saner. And much more attractive of course. I never cared much for blondes…. No offense Fish."

"None taken."

"You were considering Gilderoy Lockhart?" Ginny asked, shocked.

"I thought he was handsome, till we found out he was a sham," Hermionie said.

"Gross, I could have been Lockhart's son," Harry thought. "I'll have to inform father of how much I appreciate him when he comes by."

"I'm sure he'll enjoy that," Lily giggled, "just don't tell him why. You should hurry up so you can go get dressed. Bonnie, is your dress here or are you going home?"

"I have to go home," Bonnie sighed. "My mother and grandfather…and Fluer…they're all over there waiting for me so they can attach flowers to a tiara where it will hang in my face. What is with the Irish and nature? Sheesh."

"I'm sure you'll look lovely."

"And be nothing more than art. I won't be able to see." She sighed. "I guess I should go then. Wish me luck, for I hope I shall find my way to the party itself while blindfolded with hanging flowers." She smiled and leaned forward for Harry to kiss her, which he did joyfully. She stood and Harry offered to walk her to the door.

They stopped in front of the door and Harry put his hand to her cheek, brushing some of the blush he'd put on her cheeks. "I'll see you in a little while. I may be wearing a bit of white. Your entire family and mine will get to witness a miracle."

Bonnie smiled. "I'm glad I shall get to witness it." She leaned forward for another kiss and Harry snuck his hand into her curls and wrapped his arm around her waist to bring her closer.

Someone coughed behind them and Harry pulled away. "So sorry to interrupt," said James as they both turned to him. "But I must take my son away now to torture him with his new outfit."

"Okay. Well don't hurt him too much. I don't want him to have an excuse to skip the party," Bonnie smiled, patting Harry on the cheek. "See you later kumquat."

As she left through the door and apparated back to her own house Harry sighed and turned to his father. He stood with Josh, smiling deviously.

\-

"I dislike this immensely," Harry groaned, glaring at himself in the mirror. "I feel like a fifties prep from the States."

"You think too much about Americans and being preppy. Can't you just enjoy how nice and clean you look right now?" James asked, coming forward to stand next to his son and put a hand on his shoulder, which Harry quickly shrugged off.

"Don't touch me. The white shirt will come closer to my skin with contact and then it will burn. Do you really want me to wear this? I'll be itching and complaining about skin burning all day and then none of Bonnie's relatives will like me and call me annoying. Which I am, but I've worked _so hard_ to hide it. Maybe we should just tie the arms of a pink polo sweater around my shoulders and discuss golf while chuckling like asses."

"You've been watching too many movies. You don't look bad. My father made me dress like this at our family parties," James said.

"And you want to make me suffer to?"

"Harry, this is just to help you get over your fear of white three days before your wedding," Josh said.

"I think I'm gonna give up. I'll let Bonnie wear all the white she wants but I refuse to add to my own torture like this," he started to pull at the white shirt, trying to undo the buttons in his anger. "I'm not going to start dressing like some ass in human clothing just to impress Bonnie's multitude of cousins."

"That's not what you're doing," Sirius said.

"I'll just wear my regular black clothing like I do to every event."

"And stand out like a dandelion in a field of roses?" James asked.

"Are you calling me a weed?"

James sighed. "Fine Harry, wear what you like. But I'm telling you, this outfit will be good for you. No one will say anything if you dress like a normal human being and not a depressed and angsty teenager."

"That's so rude dad. And to think I was going to tell you how much I appreciated you," Harry sighed, sitting down on his bed and putting his head in his hands.

James quickly went over to him and sat down beside him. "You were?"

Harry glanced at his father's worried face out of the corner of his eye. He seemed scared that he might have ruined something again.

"You know, you can wear whatever you want. I don't care. I was just going along with Josh," James said quickly.

"James!" Josh said.

Harry laughed. "Dad, you don't have to suck up to me."

"I'm not sucking up to you."

Sirius and Remus snorted in the corner while Josh crossed his arms and stared the man down. James glared at them.

"You kind of are dad. But it's alright. I do appreciate you. And I'll appreciate you more if you let me wear what I want and keep the others from giving me crap about it. Especially Josh."

"Fine, wear what you want."

"Don't you at least have any non-skinny jeans?" Josh asked. "Could you wear some khakis or something?"

"Ha! It is written in the St. Jimmy book, in the front with the code, and signed by all the boys in my group that unless it is a dire situation, like you're being tortured or have no choice whatsoever, you are not to wear khakis. And seeing as we're rich and there is no dire dress code I'm gonna say I have a choice."

"Fine, no khakis. What about a light colored shirt?"

"You guys are nuts. These people don't care what he wears. Just put him in some thin legged slacks and a long sleeved graphic tee and he'll be a Marc Jacobs model for the afternoon."

They all looked at Sirius confused.

"That's good idea Sirius," Harry said. "Who's Marc Jacobs?"

/-

"Oh Merlin, dear you look adorable," Lily said as they all got in the limo to get to the garden party at Newark Park, Ozleworth Gloucestershire.

"I know. Who knew Sirius had serious fashion sense?"

"We all knew it; we were just hiding it from you."

"So where are we having tomorrow's party?" Harry asked, glancing around the new limo that his parents had bought sometime between Bonnie's bridal shower and now.

"Berrington Hall in Herefordshire. It'll be lovely. I've made it thirties themed," Lily gushed, always happy about her beautiful parties. "You will be wearing another suit, which your father picked out for you. And Bonnie's dress is simply beautiful. Lucky her, her hair was designed for the 30's theme." She stopped gushing when little Sirius started to get fidgety, trying to get out of her lap.

Harry sunk into his seat. "Why did we have to bring little Sirius?"

"Because he's your brother Harry, which makes him family," James said, stonily.

"It's not like he can talk," Harry muttered.

Little Sirius caught a handful of James's hair and pulled. When James got his hair back and told Sirius no, little Sirius giggled and said, "Ar-ry."

Everyone in the car froze. They looked from little Sirius and then to Harry, who was glaring at his brother and then looking away trying to act nonchalant.

"What did you say sweetheart?" Lily asked her youngest.

"Ar-ry. Ar-ry," Sirius cried, reaching out to his brother.

"Harry," Lily said, "he said your name."

"He's just babbling, he doesn't know what he's saying."

"Harry, he's reaching toward you," Remus said.

"What are you all implying? So he said my name. You say it all the time." He forced himself to be indifferent. His brother was a traitor to him.

"We're not implying anything except that your brother loves you," Lily said, smiling at her sons. She turned to little Sirius. "Do you love Harry? You miss your brother huh?"

Harry just sighed and rolled his eyes, leaning against the side of the car. As soon as he did he was flung back to the other side, shoved into older Sirius. "What the bloody hell?"

"Harry!" Lily scolded, covering little Sirius's ear and pressing his other to her chest.

The window between the driver and the back of the limo opened and the driver looked back at them, speaking to Lily. "Sorry Ma'am. I must stop. There are girls and fans come off the sidewalk blocking the street. They can tell its Mister Potter."

"Harry, get down on the floor," James said, pressing Harry's head down and forcing him to sit on the floor and threw the invisibility cloak over him. They sent two guards out each side door and they went to move the girls off the street.

Harry saw through the cloak, girls throwing themselves at the window. Cries of, "I love you Harry!" followed closely by screams of longing as they clawed at the windows. Then they were pulled away from the doors by men in black robes and the car started to drive slowly away again. The guards apparated back into the limo and Harry was allowed to remove the cloak but forced to sit on the floor by his father's feet for the rest of the ride, so as not to attract anymore attention.

Harry laid his head on James's knees, letting James instinctively run a hand over his hair. When the car stopped again he pulled away and sat up in his seat. Out the window he could see them pull up on a gravel road up to a tall manor with a huge yard filled with people, though not as many as Harry had expected. "Are we late, or early?"

"A little early. We're supposed to be the last to arrive. But there shouldn't be too many from the other side that haven't arrived already," Lily said as the driver came to the door and held it open for them.

They were greeted at the front of the yard by Jackline. Or more, Sirius was. She ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thank God you're here. My mother invited my ex, Merlin only knows why, and he's been following me around for a half an hour now bothering me with his new girlfriend, who I'm guessing is around Bonnie's age. So you must come with me." She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him away but stopped to turn back to them. "Harry! Bonnie is talking to Jacobie over by the Cricket field and no one go near Cameron. He's having a fit."

"Well I guess that means I'm going to steal Bonnie away again," Harry said. "Maybe I'll find out why Mister Price is having a fit."

Harry walked away, leaving the others to themselves, and searched the yard for a Cricket field. He looked around and caught Bonnie across the yard, dressed in a bright white knee-length dress with a floral design at the bottom. A pink sash was wrapped around her beneath her chest and tied in the back with a bow. A band of white was placed in her hair and small pink flowers made a veil over her eyes.

He walked toward her but was cut off when a tall man stepped in front of him quickly. "Mister Potter," he said slowly, rolling it around in his mouth as he glanced Harry over. "You probably don't—"

"You're Jackline's ex-husband Markel. I know who you are. We met when I was nine before the divorce."

"Right," he said slowly, as though trying to remember himself. "Been a long time hasn't it? Well, you look a lot different now than you did then. But you're still wearing all those black outfits, just a little designer this time. What is that? Marc Jacobs?"

Harry sighed. "It depresses me that you can all tell who made it just with a glance. What tragic lives you must lead." He glanced quickly at the young woman beside Jackeline's ex and then back to him. "I have to go now. I'd like to say hello to my fiancé."

He left the man and his girlfriend alone and headed back toward where Bonnie was standing with Jacobie. Harry was over in a flash, refusing to let anymore annoying relatives stop him. He took Bonnie's wrist before she noticed he was there and turned her to face him.

He stepped back realizing she had put on more makeup, on her lips. "You've cheated."

"What a lovely greeting," Bonnie said, taking a step forward to greet him better but he took another step back from her. "Don't be like that. It's not my fault. My mother put it on."

"You could have stopped her. What was she going to do to you?"

"You wouldn't let a little lip gloss stop you from kissing your future wife now would you?"

"I think I may. And I was even thinking of ignoring the fact that you're wearing white but I think I'll just give up now."

"Harry!"

"We shouldn't kiss in front of Jacobie anyway. It's rude."

"Oh, you don't even like Jacobie. Besides, he's got a fiancé to now."

"Really?" Harry asked, turning to his once adversary. "Found another cousin have you?"

"Hardy har har," Jacobie laughed fakely, leaning against a cricket bat. "She's Russian; arranged marriage. I don't even know what she's saying to me half the time. I hope you're happy."

"I'm not sorry that I am. So where is she?"

Jacobie lifted his arm and pointed uncaring across the yard. Both Harry and Bonnie turned in the direction he was pointing. A tall girl with dark hair was standing with Jackline's ex-husband and his girlfriend, trying to talk to them but they seemed to have a hard time understanding her to. They were trying to get away politely but she kept pulling them back, angry that they were trying to leave and it showed in her face. She seemed a fearsome thing to behold.

"She seems nice," Harry said, trying to be optimistic.

"She's very bossy."

"Fish claims bossy girls are great sex fiends, if that helps. I'm pretty sure he thinks that's good but I'm not sure if the rest of us are supposed to."

"That really helps Potter."

"She must have some redeeming qualities," Bonnie said. "She has great hair."

"I'm supposed to go on with the rest of my life, married to a girl and only be happy that she has great hair while she yells at me about something I can't understand."

"I'm sure after a few years of marriage you'll understand what she's saying."

"I don't know if I'll bother to try," Jacobie sighed.

"Jacobie!" Bonnie scolded. "She's going to be your wife. You should try to make her comfortable. She doesn't even speak English."

"And I don't speak Russian. Whose fault is that?" He sighed and leaned against the fence. "I blame Potter. I could have married Bonnie."

"She's your cousin," Harry said.

"Second cousin. It doesn't matter in the wizarding world."

"Harry," Bonnie interrupted. "We have to separate. More people are showing up. Don't spend all your time with Jacobie."

"Oh, I'll try not to," Harry said sarcastically as Bonnie walked away across the yard. He turned back to Jacobie who was staring forlorn at his future bride. "All right. You're the only one I know that I can now tolerate besides Bonnie's father and grandfather so you're going to walk around with me. Just don't touch me."

"I'll try to resist. Why can't you force my grandfather to follow you around?"

"He wouldn't."

"Fine. You've already met Jackline's ex I saw."

"We've met before just not after the actual divorce. Who didn't see that one coming, really? He was a horrible man. I think he still is. That girl looks like she's my age."

"Yeah. That's my uncle. The pervert. Alright. Let's go introduce you to Aunt Judy and her three bratty children."

"Let's save the kids for last."

"You don't have to talk them."

"It's too early to be near children."

"Alright, fine. We'll go see—that's not one of my cousins," Jacobie cut himself off, glancing in the other direction. Harry followed his line of sight across the yard where a group was just arriving. A girl with long black hair to her waist, pulled back in a braid and her eyes hidden with a large side bang. She wore a yellow dress with white swirl stitching and white flats. What Harry guessed were her parents stood behind her, dressed very well and clean, another couple around the same age but slightly younger wearing more fashionable outfits and an older couple, her grandparents maybe, were getting out of the car after them. Jacobie gasped. "Did Bonnie invite the other side of the family?"

"Why would she do that? I thought they hated each other?"

"Let's go find out," Jacobie said, ready to rush over to them.

Harry grabbed him by the arm. "I think Bonnie would like to talk to them first. Let's go see if Mister Price is okay."

"I don't want to talk to Uncle Cameron. He doesn't like me."

Harry ignored him and pulled him along inside the manor. They found Cameron pacing a corridor near the gates, watching his daughter greet his ex-family. "Mister Price?"

The man spun around to them quickly.

"Oh, hi Harry. Shouldn't you be meeting with the family?"

"You're part of Bonnie's family. I'll meet with you." He leaned against the wall opposite him. "Are you okay?"

"Me? I'm fine. Just a little frustrated. Bonnie told you about my…family, right?"

Harry nodded.

"Yeah, well, that's them." He motioned to the people outside, "my younger sister and her husband, my older brother and his wife and their daughter and my parents; the devil and his wife.

"Bonnie invited them," he said sadly. "She naively suspects that they just want to be forgiven and we can all be a family again." He looked at Harry. "You understand that's never going to happen, don't you?"

Harry nodded.

"Bonnie doesn't want to believe that. So I guess we'll all have to suffer when she's disappointed."

"They look nice," Harry said, glancing at them as Bonnie headed over to them with her grandmother.

"Sure they do. They've been hiding out in the fashion capital of the Amazon hiding from wizards. And now they've suddenly put themselves in the middle of a party full of them. There must be another reason behind it. I just didn't want Bonnie to find out that she actually had family who hated her. I never wanted her to think that."

"She'll get over it. Besides, Ginny told Fish who in turn told me that she's more worried that I'll like her cousin." Harry chuckled. "She's such a jealous little thing."

Cameron smiled. "She has been pining over you since she was seven." He turned away from the scene of his family. "How was the planning? I never asked."

"Oh, stressful. The only thing we didn't do was the food. Bonnie and I can hardly choose good food; we don't eat enough of it ourselves. So we had Ron, Hermionie, Ginny and Fish do it for us. The other stuff, very stressful and gives you this vain feeling of shallowness. Registering for presents that we'll probably never use nor need, buying rings and tuxes and cakes that I can't even eat because it's full of sugar and I don't want to get high at my own wedding."

"Yes, you don't seem like the kind of person who'd have fun planning a wedding."

"But Bonnie had fun, especially with the flowers. There are going to be lots of roses at the wedding. Center pieces are apparently something else though, she said it looks marvelous and I'm not sure if she was lying because I've never heard her use that word before."

Cameron laughed. "You should probably get out to the party. People will want to see you. I'm going to go find my wife. Maybe she'll have me meditate my anger away or something."

Harry smiled and watched Cameron leave.

"Bye Uncle Cameron," Jacobie said.

Cameron waved his hand behind him as he sneaked out the way Harry and Jacobie had come. Harry turned to Jacobie. "Alright, take me to your relatives."

/-

"Sir Potter, how wonderful to meet you," Bonnie's second uncle Liam greeted him, holding out his hand.

Harry glanced at it but didn't shake his hand. His father refused to allow him to wear his gloves. "I don't shake hands with people I don't know."

The man dropped his hand and Jacobie rolled his eyes. "Uncle Liam, may I introduce you to the groom. He has some problems, just ignore them."

Harry smacked him in the shoulder with the back of his hand. "It's no offense to you sir."

"I understand."

"So, how are you related to Bonnie?" Harry asked.

"I'm her uncle. Jackline's ex-husband Markel, I'm his brother."

"Oh! I'm so sorry. That's tragic."

"Yes. Nobody in the family likes his new girlfriend. Except our father but I think he wants her for himself. Perverted old man."

"So you took Jackline's side in the divorce. I wasn't there when it happened of course."

"Well we weren't allowed to even if we wanted to. Divorce is a serious faux pas in pureblood families. Jackline's decision should have at least gotten her kicked out of the family but no. She wasn't even slapped on the hand."

"He wanted to race her horses until they got so worn out they died. She had a right to divorce him. He's a horrible man. No offense, I know he's your brother. I used to beat him with the St. Jimmy stick all the time."

"What's the St. Jimmy stick?"

"It's my stick. It's a really heavy metal pole that I fight with and used as my cane for half a year. I'd show it to you but its getting cleaned. It has scratches all over it from when I smashed a few walls at my parent's house out of anger. And I noticed some blood spatter on it, leftover from the war."

The man nodded slowly, looking disturbed. "Right. Um, I'm gonna go talk to Jacobie's fiancé. Excuse me."

Harry watched him go. "What did I say?"

"Maybe you shouldn't say blood spatter. People are very sensitive about things like murder," Jacobie said.

"Thanks for the advice. Let's go talk to the children I guess, now that we've met all of the boring people."

"I thought Aunt Angela was awfully lively today. You didn't find her amusing? She almost took her wig off."

They headed over toward who Jacobie told Harry was his Aunt Gloria. Aunt Gloria was a lovely lady who didn't try to shake Harry's hand and didn't ask him any stupid questions. She asked how the wedding planning went and what Harry and Bonnie would be doing after the wedding for their honeymoon. But despite her sweetness her daughter was the devil. Jacobie kept wincing every time Gloria mentioned her and Harry could hear him silently praying that the child was at home with typhoid fever.

They were suddenly interrupted by a loud scream and Harry had to grab Jacobie before he ran off for safety with the others.

Gloria's daughter Heather, Bonnie's second cousin, was a lovely blonde child with blue eyes, like many of the other children here who looked a lot like Bonnie. She screamed quite loud and Gloria had to excuse herself to find out what was wrong with her.

"Quick, before she gets worse."

But Harry couldn't. He could just avoid Heather but he'd know she was crying and he hated it when girls cried. It was an unsolved mystery as to why it bothered him so much. He ignored Jacobie and let him go and crouched down beside Gloria and Heather who was screaming very loudly now.

"Mind if I try?" he asked Gloria.

She willingly gave up and stepped back, ready to try again after he gave up.

Harry looked at Heather who was still screaming, her eyes were closed so she didn't notice the fact that her mother was now gone. "Heather?" Harry asked, his voice suddenly calm and pleasant in its deepness.

Heather stilled and looked at him, tears drying suddenly at the sound of his voice.

"Is something the matter?" he asked. She merely shrugged. "Do you wanna see something that'll cheer you up?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded.

The people who were now huddled around, astonished that Harry (who apparently hated children) got evil Heather to behave, gasped as Harry sat down in the grass in a very expensive outfit without a care.

Harry summoned a notebook and a pencil with his hand. Other children came to sit down to see what he was doing and Heather shoved one of the children, telling them that he was doing it for her. Harry glared at them and they all shut up. He drew a few pictures on the page of cartoonish animals, which was quite demeaning for him but he did it anyway. He turned the drawings to the children. "Blow."

The kids looked at each other but blew on the drawings which then suddenly draped themselves in color. The kids laughed excitedly. Harry touched the paper and the paper animals fell off the paper and stood up on the ground.

The kids started to play and Harry glanced away from them and looked over at Bonnie as she talked to "the other" family. Harry stood and he and Jacobie wandered around, prepared to go visit other people. Harry watched as Bonnie talked to them, people she hadn't seen since she was five and hardly knew; hardly family at all. Mrs. McNeal (Bonnie's mother) joined her daughter and Mr. Price's parents greeted her warmly and were seemingly friendly.

Harry turned slightly to see that Mr. Price was watching from afar, seemingly without any desire to reunite with his forgotten family.

He looked back at the happy reunion. He could do legilimancy but he hadn't practiced from this distance before. He'd have to be introduced to them before he could search for their reasoning for coming here. Dumbledore had told him not to invade people's minds, it was improper. But he was only taking a peak to see if they were here for good reasons.

"Potter, are we going to play or what?" Jacobie asked, shoving a cricket bat into Harry's hand.

"What?" Harry asked, looking down, confused at the bat in his hand.

"Cricket, we're playing cricket Potter."

"No. I'll sit it out," Harry said, trying to hand the bat to him.

"No way. You're on the other team."

"Jacobie, take the bat. I don't play cricket."

"Why? Too muggle for the half-blood?"

Harry glared at him. "I don't know how to play if you must know. Not to mention I have competitive issues."

"You play Quidditch."

"A position I play by myself without any contact with the other players besides the other seeker."

Jacobie sighed, annoyed. "Look, it's real easy. You don't have to deal with the other players. Just hit the ball and run. I'll tell you what to do from there."

"But—"

"Shut up and do it Potter." Jacobie walked away and Harry was left standing with a bat. Harry turned to look at Bonnie and she and the rest of the guests were standing at the barrier line of the field to watch them play. Harry sighed and went to the other team to stand with one of the cousins he had kind of met over Christmas.

"Potter, you're up first," Paris said, pointing to where he had to stand.

Harry groaned and walked up to the plate.

Bonnie cheered, followed by the Potters and some others.

"Why can't we play Quidditch like normal wizards?" Harry mumbled to himself. He looked up at the bat and then at the bowler. "You're going to regret this."

/-

A half hour later three boys were sitting at the sidelines with ice at their crotches and Cricket was canceled.

"Well you sure know how to end a game Harry," Sirius said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks Sirius," Harry smiled, though he really hadn't meant to hit everyone in the crotch with the ball.

"Harry," Bonnie said, running up to him, her other family following her cautiously and looking quite excited. "Lovely game kumquat. I think you did better than the last time you played."

"Yep, three out of four isn't bad at all."

Bonnie smiled and kissed him quickly on the lips. She then turned to stand between him and her new 'family.' "Harry, this is the Price family. These are my grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Price and my aunt and uncle; Rachel, my father's sister and her husband Jeff; my father's older brother Remmington and his wife Laura and their daughter Angeline. Everyone, this is my fiancé, Sir Harry Potter."

"It's nice to meet you Sir Potter," Mr. Price greeted, holding out his hand.

Harry glanced at it and looked up at the old man, practically glaring.

"Harry," Bonnie mumbled.

Harry stared at them as though they were boring cockroaches, his expression shifting diminutively as he stared at them.

Mr. Price dropped his hand, suddenly uncomfortable. 'Oh Merlin, the Savior is glaring at me. I hope I haven't angered him.'

Harry looked at Bonnie's aunt Rachel. 'Of course the Savior doesn't shake hands dad, everyone knows that. God dad, get out of the way so the rest of us can look at him.' She had her arms crossed over her chest and wouldn't look at him anyway; she kept glancing away and wouldn't look him in the face.

Harry looked to the uncle Remmington. 'Cameron got all the perks. Why did we leave him? He was so young and I knew he would get crap like this one day. Friends with the Savior, the Savior marrying his daughter. My daughter can't even dress appropriately.'

Harry was disgusted with him and turned to listen to his daughter's thoughts. 'God, my family is such a bunch of losers. I feel so sorry for Bonnie. They're just using her and the Savior doesn't even look very nice anyway. I wish I could leave this stupid family.

"Sir Potter?" Mr. Price asked. "That was a lovely game you played. Knocked out all the players you did."

"Yeah. Um, Bonnie…can I talk to you for a minute?" Harry asked, caressing his hand down the back of her arm and taking her hand.

"Um…yeah, okay." She turned to the others. "Excuse us for a second."

Harry led her away from them and stopped near a fountain so the water would disguise the silencing charm he put around them. "Are they being nice to you?"

Bonnie smiled. "Yeah, they're being very nice. They say they want to be a family again. If only my father would stop refusing to come talk to them. They seem really nice. They're coming to the wedding and everything now that I know they're okay." She put her hand on his chest. "You shouldn't be so rude Harry; they're not here just for you."

Harry looked away from her. He didn't want to upset her and he wasn't sure how to tell her what he'd heard. "Um, Bonnie…I'm not sure how to tell you…."

Bonnie's smile fell and she removed her hand from his chest and took a step back. "What?"

Harry took her hands and stepped toward her. "I was um…kind of listening to their thoughts..."

"Harry! You're not supposed to do that."

"I know, but I was just trying to figure out what kind of people they are."

"And I'm sure you found that they are very nice people who are very sorry about how we left things. Right?" Harry looked away from her uncomfortably. "Right? Harry?"

Harry looked up at her, his face scrunching as though he was in pain. "I'm so sorry pet."

"They aren't?"

Harry shook his head, terrified that he would be the one to make her cry.

Bonnie took a deep breath. "They're here for you," she stated, not questioning it.

"I am so sorry Bonnie. I'm so sorry. I wish they were here for you, I really really do."

Bonnie shook her head. "It's not your fault, you can't control it. I just…I hoped for something that was surely impossible. My father warned me and I didn't listen. I'm just stupid I guess."

"You're not stupid pet, you're a genius," Harry said, stroking her cheek.

"I meant stupid in the common sense area. I should have known better."

Harry could see her eyes getting red and pulled her close to stroke her hair. He tilted her head back and took her face in his hands and kissed her with strong lips. He pulled back and stroked her cheeks. "I'm sorry pet."

Bonnie smiled sadly. "It's alright. I don't blame you." She smiled. "You wanna talk to them and poke fun at everything they say later?"

Harry smiled. "Okay."

He took the silencing charm down and lifted her hands to his lips to kiss each of them. They then headed back over to the group together.

"Sorry about that," Bonnie said, stopping before them. "Harry was just telling me some gossip."

"What's that?" Mr. Price asked.

"Well if I had wanted to tell you we wouldn't have gone over there now would we?" Harry asked. "So, tell me, what have you all been doing, besides hiding from the war, while your brother was running the country in time of dire need?" Harry asked seriously, very curious.

The Price family looked at each other.

Angeline rolled her eyes. "I'm going to look over the food. They'll probably be more interesting. Sir Potter, it was lovely to meet you. I was shopping while you were fighting the war. I hope you won't punish me for it," she said sarcastically.

"Of course not. It was lovely to meet you Ms. Price," he said pleasantly, sounding like he'd meant it unlike the way he spoke to the rest of her family, giving a light bow of his head.

"Right. Talk to you later Lady Potter," she said as she walked away.

Bonnie had an instant liking for her cousin.

"So, Sir Potter," Mr. Price said, ignoring his granddaughter. "I'm sure you know full well that we've been in South America for a bit. And we weren't exactly hiding from the war, but like most people we weren't really a part of it."

"Actually, it was kind of a…muggle/wizard kind of category and everyone really falls into that category. So really, you were part of the war, you just felt no need to save anyone's arses but your own." The group looked worried so Harry rushed to settle them down. "But don't worry. I know a lot of people who didn't participate. I forced my own family to go home. I wasn't about to let them die again. How tragic would that be? And my mother," he said, pointing to Lily who was standing with James and Cameron holding the baby, "well she was pregnant at the time. So you see they all had good reason. That's why I asked, what your's was? Because I know good people like yourselves wouldn't leave the country out in the cold."

"We're muggles, Sir," Remmington said to stop the rant. "What were you expecting us to do?"

"What were you doing at the time?" Harry asked.

Remmington looked to his sister and his father before back at Harry. "Well I think we were going about our daily lives."

"Well for one you could have acknowledged it." Harry smiled then. "But that's all in the past now, we shouldn't bring up old news."

The group smiled; grateful that he was going to change the subject.

"So now that you're obviously out of South America where are you living?" Harry asked.

"Well we were hoping to patch things up with Cameron because we're moving back to our old house in England. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed the place," Mr. Price said.

"Yeah. I love England to."

"Bonnie," Rachel interrupted, to steer the conversation, "I did love the invitations. They were so elegant. Is it themed with the wedding?"

"The wedding doesn't really have a theme actually. It's more just…a ceremony."

"Oh," she said plainly. "Not being very modern are we?"

"We don't like modern," Harry said, his voice like a stone. "We're more traditional."

"Yes. Everything traditional," Bonnie said with more energy. "Very simple and elegant, a real priest and no kissing. All very safe for church."

"Sounds exciting," Laura said sarcastically.

"Oh it will be," Harry said. "It'll be the highlight of the year. Who wouldn't want to see the Savior get married? He might do something odd."

"But even purebloods get to kiss at their weddings," Remmington said.

"Well…" Bonnie trailed off, hooking her arm tightly with Harry's and leaning into him, "there will be plenty of time to kiss outside of church."

Harry rolled his eyes and turned to smile at his future wife who could only think of sex three days before their wedding.

"And where are you going for your honeymoon?" Laura asked.

"Well, since the church is in Ireland we're starting there for the actual wedding night, then we're on to India. We're going to wing it from there and decide where to go before we leave. We plan to travel for around a year, depending on how long we stay at each location. I'm guessing we won't stay long in the United States. President Bush isn't Harry's biggest fan anymore."

"That sounds lovely."

"Doesn't it?" Harry smiled in utter fakeness. He then turned to Bonnie. "We really should make our rounds."

"Maybe you should go apologize to the men you've knocked out," Mr. Price suggested. "We'll take care of Bonnie."

"Oh I wouldn't worry about them. There wasn't much to damage," Harry said, getting a shove in the side from Bonnie for insulting her family.

/-

By the end of the day Harry was sitting in a chair between his father and Sirius, all of them soaking wet but Harry had a huge smile on his face. James sat beside him shaking his head slowly, sporadically glancing at his son.

Bonnie came over after she'd sent her last guest home. She stood in front of Harry and put her hands on her hips, glaring angrily at him. "I can't believe you threw my father into the pool."

Harry just smiled. "If anyone was watching, I was pushed in first by Jackline's ex and I only accidentally pulled your father in. And he's fine with it," he said, still chuckling, motioning to Cameron across the yard as he twisted his Armani suit jacket and watched the water spill out like a wave.

"You didn't have to provoke him. You know he's a mean but sensitive man. We just leave him alone."

"Like hell," Harry scoffed. "He needs to be punched in the neck is what he needs. And besides," he laughed and slumped into his seat leaning toward Sirius to whisper, "Jacobie slipped me some liquor. Can I really be blamed for what I do when I'm drunk?"

Bonnie sighed and shook her head. "I guess we should be going home then. Do you mind?" she asked, glancing at James and Sirius.

They both stood and walked away and Bonnie stepped forward and sat down on Harry's lap facing him.

"This is nice," Harry smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist. She was wearing white but he was drunk and didn't really notice it. "But I'll see you when we get back to the house."

"You're going to your house Harry. I'm off to mine on Mongolia Crescent with my parents. We're not supposed to be in the same house or sleeping in the same bed until we're married. Its tradition and improper."

"But…" he paused and wrapped a finger into one her curls, "I like when we're shacked up like dirty Catholics," he said jokingly. "I really hate traditions," he sighed, leaning his head forward to lye on her chest.

"We'll see each other in the morning," Bonnie said, stroking his hair and laying her head on his. "We'll be dressed all pretty again, and we'll be dry."

"A thirties theme. My mother said you're exited."

"Very." She lifted her head. "You'll look very sexy. White shirt and suspenders I think would look very nice."

"Guess we'll see tomorrow if that's true or not," Harry mumbled against her collarbone.

"Bonnie!" Cameron called across the yard, "we're leaving!"

Bonnie put her hand under Harry's chin and lifted his face up to meet her eye to eye. "I'll see you tomorrow evening," she mumbled, leaning in closer until she'd pulled Harry into a passionate kiss as though it was their last moment together. Then she pulled away and left.

/-

"Fish!"

"Don't cry to me. I didn't make you drink. I wasn't there. Whine to your father," Fish said as they sat at the breakfast table the next morning, Harry with a hangover even though he hadn't slept very much at all.

Harry dropped his head onto the table. "Where's mum?"

"Off with your future wife and mother-in-law getting their hair and makeup done," Remus said, leaning back and munching on lunch.

"Why is no one but the women in my life able to make a good hangover potion?"

"Just the way things are I guess," James said. "Call your fiancé's friend Snape and ask him to make you one. He's coming to the party tonight."

"Don't remind me. That shall be a hit. I mean, the man and I are no longer enemies but I don't know how I'm supposed to interact with him at parties."

"Then don't," Ron offered. "I'm not going to."

James, Sirius and Remus all chuckled behind their hands and everyone turned to them.

"What are you three laughing about?" Harry asked.

"We know something you don't know," Sirius sang.

"About Snape or about the party?"

"Both," James smiled. "Your mother talks in her sleep when she's keeping secrets, which is the only reason I know."

"That's handy," Fish said.

"It is but most of the time it just gets me into trouble."

"So what's the secret?" Harry asked.

"Well apparently, our new and freed Snivellous is taking a date to the party. I'm not sure if she looks like a bear or what but a date for Snivellous is something if it's anything," Sirius said.

/-

Harry walked into the ballroom and leaned against the wall, fully dressed and prepared for the party and watched as his mother ordered around the decorators for last minute details like food and waiters and music.

"Having fun mum?" Harry asked, sitting down at one of the tables.

She turned to him and smiled. "Don't you look handsome? Bonnie will be ecstatic."

"Yeah…" Harry sighed. "I've never worn a bow tie before. And I've also never gotten my hair to comb over like this. It's an odd shift in hairstyles after seventeen years of having it stick out all over the place," he said, patting his black hair.

"You look very debonair," Lily smiled, then looked away to find out where her other son had crawled off to.

"When does the party start?" Harry asked.

"An hour or so. I'll be going upstairs in a few minutes to get ready myself. Would you mind terribly watching your brother?"

"Actually I would. Where's dad or Sirius or Remus…or the nanny?"

"The nanny isn't here. She's on vacation."

"Great timing," Harry mumbled.

"And your father and his friends have run off somewhere."

"Can't you go find someone—"

"Harry, he's your brother. Not some sticky child I found on the street. Just make sure he doesn't stick anything in his mouth," she said, before leaving the room.

Harry looked over his shoulder and found little Sirius pulling himself up on Harry's chair and smiling at him. "What do you want?"

"ar-ry," he said, reaching up his small hand to grip at Harry's pant leg.

"Are they going to dress you up?" Harry asked, putting his hand on his brother's head and pulling his hair lightly so that it stood straight up.

Sirius came over closer to him and rested his cheek against Harry's thigh. Harry thought that was a weird show of affection from a one year old.

"You better not drool on my pants," Harry said, patting Sirius's hair down again and putting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. He silently ran his hand through Sirius's hair as he looked around the room. "I can't wait till you're four Sirius. We'll get to see if you're weird like me, or normal like dad." He turned to look at his brother who, in return, looked up at him and smiled. Harry took Sirius's hand and stood up. "If you promise not to pee or poop or spit on me I'll pick you up. Or can you walk?"

Sirius raised his hand up to Harry.

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes before lifting Sirius into his arms. "You pee on me and this "brother brother" relationship we have going here…it's over," Harry threatened, looking down at his brother as he sat on his hip. Sirius made no sound so Harry took that as an agreement. "This will be easier when you're potty-trained," he muttered to himself as he walked out of the ballroom. "If my mother comes back, I have Sirius," he told the butler on his way out.

As they walked around the foyer Harry turned to Sirius. "Where should we go? Let's go upstairs. We'll sit in the family lounge. We're family, it should get some use." They headed upstairs and went into one of the larger lounges and Harry sat down in the love seat and sat Sirius down beside him. Harry had never been in this lounge before. He noticed that he hadn't been in a lot of the rooms of his house even though he'd been living here almost two summers. He was very busy through most of them though.

He sighed and looked down at his brother. "Have you been in this room before?" he asked. "If you have, with both our parents, I think I may cry."

Little Sirius just stared at him with big brown eyes.

"Right, no reason to get upset. Don't tell me." He stood up and propped a pillow up beside Sirius incase he wasn't balanced. "I'm going to play the piano. You wanna hear?" Harry sat down at the bench and started Claire de Lune, which was nice and pleasant. He looked back every few moments to make sure his brother was still sitting up. When he was finished he turned back to his brother. "You are the oddest child. Shouldn't you be crying because I've taken you away from mother or something? I'm not a very healthy personality to be around. It's not as though I'm exactly nice to you or anything."

Sirius looked at him and smiled toothlessly. "You're weird. I hope you don't turn out like me though. Cause you may be weird now," he said slowly, making his way back to the couch, "but I am ill-crazy. I know they all think so," Harry whispered to him as he sat Sirius on his leg. He leaned back in the couch and brought Sirius with him, still playing with his hair, silently in thought.

"There you two are," Lily said, flustered, as she bustled into the room a few moments later, snapping Harry out of his thoughts. "You should tell the butlers where you're going, not just that you're taking him," she said, gently lifting a now sleeping Sirius off Harry's chest.

"You look lovely mum," Harry said, noticing her hair pulled back in ringlets and bobby pins. She had on a flowing yellow gown with thin straps.

"Thank you dear. Now come back downstairs so we can prepare to greet the guests."

/-

"You look beautiful," Harry said, looking at Bonnie's floor length, emerald green gown with a v-neck and a small tie in front below the hips. (Look for pictures of Kiera Knightly's dress in Atonement, that's the image I was going for).

"Thank you," Bonnie smiled, taking his hand and they lightly kissed. "You look very handsome yourself.

"These suspenders are quite the annoyance but if it pleases you I suppose I can endure for one night," Harry said in mockingly aristocratic tone.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and took his arm. "You are mine tonight thankfully. Tomorrow, we will be going our separate ways. So I hope you won't mind if I keep you at my side all night long?"

"Of course my pet," Harry said, securing her arm close to his side and patting her wrist with his other. "And if anyone should try to separate us I shall break their necks."

"Okie-dokie."

Harry was able to spend time with his followers who, with slight irritation, congratulated him. Some were very happy for him but some were still insulted that he hadn't picked them instead. In one corner of the room Fish was entertaining some followers and a few of Bonnie's nicer cousins on his home life.

"You see, my mom cheated on my dad and they got divorced so she met and married dad number two. But then dad number two found out she was sleeping with dad number one so she left dad number two and got remarried to dad number one. Dad number two now lives in Birmingham with his new wife and my sister, step-brother once removed and the brother that has no relation."

"Why didn't you go live with them?" someone asked.

"I wasn't invited. Besides, I couldn't leave Harry. Though now I know I should have. He's leaving me; I could have done it first."

"I'm not leaving you Fish. It's called a honeymoon, everyone does it."

"But only you could make it last a year," Fish whined.

"I'm sure professor Dumbledore will let you visit Ginny at school, won't that be enough? You can bother my father and Sirius and Remus. Besides, you'll be busy with your band anyway. You'll be going on tour soon."

"If you weren't getting married you could have gone with me."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"St. Jimmy? Are we all invited to your stag party?" Hyp asked.

"I'm sure you all are, but my dad and Fish are planning it. I told them no strippers so there should be large amounts of alcohol there. So anyone who's trying to break a new personal record for sober day shouldn't go."

He looked to Bonnie when she shook his shoulder. She motioned for him to look and he saw across the hall Severus standing at the door with Lily. He looked younger than he had when he was recovering from years of depression at school. His hair was long and sleek and his skin not so gray, he looked quite handsome in a formal 1930's suit. On his arm was a well dressed young woman around her thirties wearing a long satin black dress and her hair up in curls of auburn.

"Is that Severus's new girlfriend?" Bonnie asked excitedly. "Come on, we have to go say hello," she said, pulling him over to them. "Severus," Bonnie said happily, stopping before him with Harry stopping suddenly at her side, looking irritated at being pulled.

"Ms. McNeal," he said, smiling genuinely. He looked at Harry. "Sir Potter."

Harry nodded his greeting before glancing at the brunette beside his old professor.

"Oh! This is Rebecca; she's from Paris, France. She runs a small apothecary store there."

"It's lovely to meet you," Bonnie said, excitedly taking the woman's hand.

The woman smiled in reply.

"So how long have you and Severus been seeing each other?" Bonnie asked, not feeling at all rude for being so open.

"This is only our second date," Snape said quickly.

"But we have been dating for a few weeks now," Rebecca said in a thick French accent, moving closer to Snape's arm. Severus smiled down at her and Bonnie could see the happiness easily radiate from him.

"Well I'm so happy for you two. Severus, I'm so happy for you." She let go of Harry's hand and Harry had to quickly grab her back before she could grab onto her professor and shock him to the floor. Harry pointed to the ring and gently took it off so she could quickly give her mentor a quick hug. She quickly placed her ring back on her finger when she pulled away. "I'm so glad you could make it tonight. And to the wedding. It wouldn't be the same without you."

"I'm sure you won't even notice me at the wedding," Severus smiled.

"But it means so much to me that you're coming anyway," Bonnie smiled, blushing lightly. "And you to," she said to Rebecca. "I'm honored to have you there as well."

/-

"James, I'm telling you right now. It is not a good idea to kidnap your son."

"I agree with Fish," Sirius said as they were gathered in Sirius's bedroom discussing Harry's stag party tomorrow. "I don't think that would go over very well."

"Why not? Who would kidnap him now besides us? He has guards all over the place."

"True, but a paranoid Harry could go over very badly and then the party wouldn't be very fun now would it?"

"Fish is right."

"Right, so the only safe way would be either to go the boring route, wake Harry up and shove him into the limo or drug him and put him in the limo. He won't remember being drugged. Bonnie might get a little angry because she'll have to live with him after he becomes paranoid about everything he didn't cook himself but that's not our problem until she finds out."

"Well I like the second option," Remus said.

"No one has any problems with making Harry just a little paranoid about food?" They all shook their heads. "Well good. Now I've already mentioned Harry's name to the hotel so we've got the whole penthouse floor and the floor below it just in case."

"Just in case what?"

"I don't know. I've been thinking about a slip and slide and if the floor floods we don't want to disturb the rich turds on the floor below us."

"Who else is coming? Are we getting strippers?" Sirius asked. "I've never been to a stag party without any strippers."

"Sirius, we are men. We don't need women to have fun. We have alcohol, music, destruction and yes, once Harry gets drunk enough we'll have some girls on the floor who are not going to take off all of their clothes but will be enjoying the slip and slide with us."

"Wonderful, I'm excited," Sirius said, rubbing his hands together.

/-

"So, where are we going for my bachelorette party?" Bonnie asked, jumping onto her mother's bed. Her father was at the office so she was alone with her mother until tomorrow's party.

"It's a surprise. Just go to sleep, I'll wake you up in the morning," she said from her dressing table.

"But I can't sleep. I'm too excited about tomorrow. Tell me something about it."

"It's a surprise sweetheart. Don't you understand the meaning of a surprise?"

"Of course I do. I just don't want one. Where are you all taking me? Who exactly is coming? Are we going out to dinner or doing something exciting?"

"Of course we're doing something exciting. Now get some sleep. We'll be up all night tomorrow and during the day we're putting the finishing touches on the reception with the wedding planner. By the way, I love the flower arrangements you picked out. The ones that woman was looking at terrified me."

Bonnie watched her mother as she pulled back her hair and prepped for sleep. "Mum, you like Harry don't you?"

"Of course I do sweetheart, why do you ask?" She walked over to the bed and sat down.

"Well, you've never really talked. Ever, really. I was just curious because you've never really told me if you approved or not."

"You never asked. But it's not really my opinion that counts. If you love him, that's all you need to know."

Bonnie smiled and curled up next to her mother, resting her head on her shoulder like she used to when she was younger. "Remember when I was little, and I think it was Halloween and Harry came over really late at night when his aunt and uncle had locked him out and you and dad let him sleep in the guest room?" Her mother nodded. "Well, after you went to sleep, I snuck into his room and slept with him."

"I know. Your father saw you. He had gone to the kitchens and came back in time to see you."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to admit things to you before I leave."

"Bonnevilla, my dear, your father and I both know you've never done anything bad. You spent your time obsessing over Harry and he took such good care of you and would have never let you do anything that we wouldn't…just deal with. Like sleeping in the same bed when you were little kids. It was all harmless."

"But our principal said we developed sexually early and sent a note home to all the parents telling them to watch for signs of urges with other children on the playground."

Mrs. McNeal smiled and sunk into her bed. "Yes, I remember. But while Harry may have slept in the girl's dorms for a few years he never let into temptation to his early hormones, except when he was in the boy's dorms in which case he let his testosterone get the best of him."

"Yes, Harry really didn't like putting up with the boy's crap. He said they were messy and he wouldn't put up with it any longer." She snuggled up to her mother and rested her head on her shoulder. "I miss childhood. It was so much fun."

"But all you did was work toward getting Harry and come home whining about how he won't admit to his love. Now you have him. Marriage will be wonderful dear. I promise. If you and Harry haven't started fighting through war and preparations for a wedding you're going to have a happy marriage." She placed a kiss on Bonnie's head. "Now go to sleep."

/-

Harry was kidnapped early morning, dragged out of bed, across the yard and into the limo in front of the house where they would drive to the hotel where they would meet the rest of the party-goers.

Meanwhile, Bonnie was stuck at the reception hall clarifying modifications with the owner. Then that night the girls dressed up in their designer outfits and headed out to London. Bonnie wore a lovely flowy white dress and black knee-high boots. Bonnie was put into a limo and blindfolded so she couldn't look out the window to see where they were going. When she was dragged out of the limo someone pulled off her blindfold and she was standing in front of a modern club with bright lights and music coming out the windows. Lily took her hand and everyone made a chain behind them as they headed up to the bouncer.

"Hi," Lily greeted. "We're here for Bonnie McNeal's bachelorette party. This is her," Lily said, pulling Bonnie forward for the man to see.

The man checked a name off the list and lifted the rope to let them in. As they entered the club Bonnie noticed an odd twist in the usual bachelorette party. There were men, scantily dressed and dancing and also singing, but they were dressed as women.

"What is this?" Bonnie asked.

"It's a Transvestite club. They sing and dance and men walk around in dance costumes. I once came here on bingo night. It was fun and they serve liquor."

They all followed Lily over to a long table reserved for them. A man came up to them in a blonde up-do wig and lots of makeup to disguise an obviously male face. "What can I get you dears?"

They all stared at Bonnie; the bride had to order first. "Shirley Temple?"

The rest all ordered their drinks. "Bonnie, I thought you were the one who didn't drink in the group," Lily questioned.

"I was. That doesn't mean I didn't taste certain things at certain parties. Besides, you all looked at me like you expected me to know what I was ordering."

"We're just curious little devils."

/-

"Now that we're all hammered," Lily smiled. "A round of shots for a little game!" She stood up from her chair. "Who else wants to play Never Ever Have I Ever, with the Savior's future wife?"

Three other women from the room cheerfully joined the table and each woman in the group was given a shot.

"Bonnie, it's your party. You get to start. We all start out with ten shot glasses. While we go around we say simple statements like Never Ever Have I Ever gotten married. Since it's true in my case I would drink and so would everyone else who is married or has been married before. If it doesn't apply to you, you don't drink. Whoever is the first person with all ten shots down loses. Considering it's your wedding coming up it should be somewhat related."

Bonnie thought for a second. "Never ever have I ever kissed anyone but my current boyfriend." She made sure to make it apply to everyone at the table. While she'd only ever had one boyfriend the others had had many.

Bonnie didn't drink but Lily, Mrs. McNeal and Ginny did.

"My turn," Ginny said. "Never ever have I ever…had sex."

Half the table drank to that, only excluding Ginny and Bonnie, who both stared at Hermionie.

"I knew it!" Ginny said loudly. "The look on Fish's face. He knows when people have had sex; it's like a sixth sense."

"Kind of creepy," Bonnie giggled.

"But interesting."

"Now it's my turn," Hermionie said. "Never ever have I ever…been obsessed with a boy for over nine years."

"Does that count if you've been married to them that long?" Mrs. McNeal asked.

"No," Hermione smiled.

The only person at the table to drink was Bonnie, who blushed as she threw the drink down her throat. "You'd be obsessed with Harry to if you'd known him when he was young. He was full of testosterone and power and he looked so pretty when he wore that black makeup every day and painted his nails." Bonnie sighed and rolled her eyes back. "He smelled like dirt and soap all at one time and his hair was smooth as silk."

"Is it still like that?" Hermionie asked.

Bonnie frowned. "No, he smells more like soap and a lot less like dirt, which I suppose should be a good thing. But his hair is still like silk."

"Is someone looking forward to rolling around in some dirt over their honeymoon?" Ginny joked deviously.

Bonnie blushed. "I can't wait till the honeymoon."

/-

"How does it feel/ To be on your own/ With no direction home/ Like a complete unknown/ Like a rolling stone!" Harry and Fish sang together as they jumped up and down on their bed, drunk as giddy alcoholics.

The furniture in the room was almost demolished; there were five other people in their room with them, dancing uncoordinated to their singing. Out in the hallway half-naked girls were sipping whiskey and pouring the rest on the slip-and-slide that went all the way down the hallway and now led to the stairs where you were pulled off the slip-and-slide, forced to chug down a beer, thrown on a mattress and pushed down the stairs to their second floor. Some people had already passed out at the bottom of the stairs after their third ride.

In another room people were doing shots on who would be the next person to risk their life on the slip-and-slide.

"Let's go get more drinks Fishy!" Harry yelled over the music, jumping off the bed and pulling Fish with him back into the hallway where they collected two bottles of Fire Whiskey from the large fridge at the end of the hallway.

Harry opened both bottles and handed one to Fish. "To hangovers."

"To hangovers!"

/-

"Damn hangovers," Harry mumbled as he slowly woke up the next morning. "Oh Mary Mother of God, what did I do last night?" He looked to his side, saw long brown hair attached to someone lying on his arm and screamed throwing himself out of bed.

The person turned over and the wig fell off revealing Fish. He groaned. "I think I hired a transvestite. He gave me his wig." He slowly put his finger to his lips, as though it weighed a ton and shushed him. "Don't yell. My ears are ringing."

Harry kneeled and folded his arms on the bed and rested his head there. Slowly and carefully, his body feeling like an anvil, he pulled himself back into bed beside his friend. "Fish…I can't feel my forehead."

"Could you feel it before?"

"…I can't remember."

Fish lifted his hand. "I can't make a fist."

Harry lifted his hand and found that he couldn't either. "I feel like my body is filled with rocks and like I fell down the stairs."

"I think we did. The mattress wasn't a good idea for drunk people."

"Oh yeah. Fun though. We throw the best parties Fishy."

/-

Meanwhile, the women were all happily sitting at the breakfast table in the McNeal house, peaceful and headache free now that Bonnie had handed out the hangover potions.

"I hope the boys are alright. They have to make it to the rehearsal dinner in a few hours," Lily said.

"What do you suspect they did last night?" Ginny asked.

"I suspect they drank a lot of liquor," Bonnie said thoughtfully.

/-

They all arrived at the church in Ireland via portkey on time, ready for the rehearsal of tomorrow's ceremony. Harry and Fish were still a little giggly from the alcohol left in their systems. Sirius and James kept smacking them over the head as they went through the proceedings of the bridesmaids and the groomsmen. The groom stood at the front and the groomsmen beside him and the bridesmaids walked down the isle followed by Bonnie with Cameron beside her. Cameron sat down and Bonnie went up to join Harry on the marble steps. He was smiling, but mostly because he was still a little tipsy.

"Have a nice stag party kumquat?" she asked.

"Please kneel," the priest said.

They both kneeled, Harry reaching out to the step in front of him to keep himself from falling forward.

The cathedral was beautiful; all gold and marble and large, sparkling chandeliers; the smallest and most beautiful details in the chrome and the art in the ceiling and sculptures in the walls. It was one of the main reasons Harry had decided on this one.

"Is there going to be a translation?" James asked as they all listened to the priest speak in Latin.

"It's a wedding dad. They say the same thing at every one."

"The only wedding I've ever been to was my own."

"Then you should remember it all very well shouldn't you? Stop interrupting!"

The priest continued.

When everyone thought he had finished, before even getting to the rings, he stepped back and said, "and now Sir Potter would like to continue with an early tradition to the Catholic ceremony." He took a step back and Harry moved off the steps and motioned for Bonnie to join him as he sat cross-legged on the floor, knee to knee. "Are you wearing a veil?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"Is it going over your face?"

"No."

"Okay. Then Fish will come over with a golden plate of holy water," he said as though it were some mystic ceremony. Fish came over, rolling his eyes and holding out his empty hand. "And then I'll use the holy water to make the cross on your forehead and then, a kiss," he said, taking her chin with his thumb and forefinger and placing a kiss on her forehead.

The priest came forward again and continued on with the traditional ceremony and the two got back to their knees. They put fake, invisible rings on each other's fingers and stood together and headed back down the isle following their party where they would all head across the lawn to the small hall that would hold the rehearsal dinner.

"Are you feeling okay?" Bonnie asked as she sat down beside her future husband at their table in the rehearsal dinner hall. "You look awful."

"Thanks love. That's very sweet," Harry said sarcastically.

"No, well…do you need something? I still have hangover potion in my bag."

"Do you really?" Harry asked excitedly. "I feel dizzy and Fish is hacking up a lung in the bathroom. I don't know how he'd give a speech if it was today."

"Maybe that's why the maid of honor does the rehearsal. Come with me, I'll get them," Bonnie said, hooking her arm with his.

"I love you pet," Harry said, kissing the top of her head.

They met Fish in the men's bathroom.

"Fishy, Bonnie comes with good drugs," Harry called as they came in and knocked on the stall that someone was throwing up in.

"Oh jeese. I think I swallowed something I wasn't supposed to," he groaned, sliding to the floor behind the door. "Did that transvestite slip something into my drink cause I remember someone hitting on me."

"A transvestite?" Bonnie asked, finding it ironic.

"I don't remember," Harry said, leaning against the sinks.

"Fish?" Bonnie asked calmly, kneeling on the floor in front of the stall, "are your eyes getting blurry, are you hearing any sorts of ringing?"

"I hear ringing. Am I dying?"

Bonnie giggled. "You're fine." She slid a potion to him under the door. "Take a potion, you'll be fine." She stood up. "Like you boys haven't partied hard before."

"We fell down the stairs this time. Fish lost all memory of April."

"The girl?" she asked confused.

"No, the entire month."

Fifteen minutes later Fish and Harry were free from their ailments and sitting at the head of the very long table. Bonnie was sitting on Harry's right at the front and Fish was sitting on his other side with Ginny. Ron and Hermionie were on Bonnie's side.

When everyone had arrived Bonnie stood to make her speech and thank the crowd for coming and then the maid of honor stood up to make her speech. "It is tradition for the maid of honor to come up and say funny things about the bride and maybe show some pictures. In a way weddings are kind of like a big roast. But unfortunately my best friend and I haven't had the long run yet and over the past two years not one of us had a camera. But there are many people who have lovingly stalked Bonnie and helpfully handed over some of their best photos for me. Fish was most helpful, you'd think he was trying to blackmail you," she joked.

Fish blushed, glaring at his girlfriend.

"So I made up this little slide show." She lifted her wand and a wide black screen, hanging from nowhere appeared. "This first slide is a small video that came from Bonnie's father, Mr. Price, who never even told Harry he had it. But we all know things have to come out eventually. Even the bride's deep rooted obsession for her husband." She tapped the black screen with her wand and a video started. "Now as you can see this is Harry," Ginny commentated, pointing to Harry standing beside Fish talking quietly about something. The camera turned to face Bonnie's house. "And if you look carefully at the window you will notice little Bonnie." The camera narrowed in to the window to get a shot of Bonnie kneeling on the windowsill looking through the window with binoculars in the direction Harry was standing.

Bonnie lowered her head and blushed.

"Now since you're getting married to him we can let this go Bonnie. I'm sure Harry finds your stalking endearing.

"The next slide is a photo from Fish, where he got it I'm not sure, especially since it's a moving picture and Fish didn't know he was a wizard at a young age. He wouldn't tell me where it came from; maybe Harry will know the subject line." She tapped the screen and a moving photo of Harry standing on a stage in an auditorium facing the edge of the stage with his eyes wide and he was suddenly knocked over as Bonnie came out of nowhere, flung herself at his waist and knocked him to the ground, still clinging to him before a horde of girls followed soon after, trying to fight their way past Bonnie to get to Harry.

"Fish, what were you doing at a school event?" Harry asked.

"Mister Price took me along."

"Next photo," Ginny said. "These next photos are from Bonnie's cousin Fluer. It shows Bonnie's determination to never love any boy but Harry." The first photo was of Bonnie wearing very dark sunglasses and hiding from the Durmstrang boys behind her red hooded cloak. The second was of her punching one of them and knocking him to the ground. The third and final was of her sitting beside an unconscious Durmstrang boy, about three years her senior, seemingly at some kind of dance, and putting lipstick, blush and mascara on him. "Apparently, Bonnie had too much time on her hands at finishing school."

After Ginny's presentation everyone started on dinner that was served and sipping at their wine and discussing the rehearsal among themselves. "It was lovely wasn't it?" people said.

"That was an odd ritual though, Harry," Lily said. "I don't remember seeing that one at any muggle weddings I've seen before."

James looked up at this. "I thought it was Catholic."

"It's a very old ritual. People don't do it at their weddings anymore because they find it pointless. They're just sinners to the Catholic religion. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's pointless. No, instead they're kissing and swapping spit before God. Disgraceful."

"My son the philanthropist," James said sarcastically. "Your mother and I kissed at our wedding."

"Well you're not Catholics."

/-

The night went on as planned, a lovely speech and dinner and finally it was over and people were heading out on their way, heading home via portkey to get a good sleep so they could catch the portkey back to Ireland for the actual wedding. When everyone had gone Bonnie and Harry said their goodbye's so that they could take separate portkeys home. They weren't allowed to see each other until the wedding tomorrow when Bonnie was walking down the isle.

/-

That night Harry, Fish and Ron all slept in Harry's room on Harry's extended bed and Bonnie, Hermione, and Ginny slept in her room as per pureblood tradition to keep the groom and bride from escaping their beds in the middle of the night to see one another.


	48. The Secret

Chapter 47

The Secret

"Wake up!" Bonnie yelled, jumping up and down on her bed to wake her bridesmaids. "I'm getting married today. Wake up."

Ginny turned her head out of the pillow and glanced at the clock. "You're not getting married till two. It's eight a.m."

"But we have so much to do."

"All you have to do today is get dressed Bonnie. The rest is being taken care of for you. That's what a planner is for," Hermionie said.

"But I don't trust her," Bonnie said, dropping down on her knees between the two. "Let's start putting on my makeup." Bonnie jumped off the bed, pulling the covers off of her friends and ran to the bathroom to collect her things. As she came out with a box of things she turned on the radio which played "And Then He Kissed Me" by The Crystals. "Very appropriate," Bonnie said, setting down her box that only held blush and eyeliner. The makeup artist would come with more. Bonnie picked up her phone and dialed up her makeup artist as Ginny and Hermionie crawled out of bed.

"Maybe you should brush your teeth first," Ginny suggested, taking the phone and pushing Bonnie toward the bathroom. "I will call your makeup artist and hair person. You just get the essentials done. Wash your face, your hair and by time you're finished we'll be ready for you." She shoved Bonnie into the bathroom and closed the door before walking back to Hermione. "She's gonna be a handful," she said, putting the phone to her ear.

Fifteen minutes later Bonnie came out of the bathroom excitedly, her hair still wet and ready to be styled and wearing her white slip and blue robe. "What's first?"

"We're going to do your makeup and hair right now and then we'll put a charm on them to keep your makeup from smudging or running as time passes and a charm to keep your hair in place. So let's get started."

An hour later she was finished with her makeup; just light blush, perfect mascara and a small amount of black eyeliner that turned up at the corner just slightly. Her hair was down in perfect curls, the edges falling just lightly to her shoulders. A gold leafed tiara-headband sat forward in her hair and the curls gathered behind it.

"You look pretty," Ginny said as Bonnie put on cherry Chapstick to make her lips just a tiny bit rosier.

"I feel pretty," Bonnie smiled. "Too bad I can't put my dress on yet. We have to wait till I get to the church."

"Let's have breakfast," Hermione said, taking her friend's hands and heading out of the room and downstairs to the dining room where Bonnie's mother and father were already eating.

"Morning girls," Cameron said. "Don't you look lovely sweetness," he said to Bonnie, standing up to pull her into a hug and kiss her cheek. "Are you excited about today?"

"Do you have to ask?" Bonnie asked, sitting down beside him at the breakfast table. "I'm so excited. I can hardly resist putting on my dress."

"Well you'll get to in a little while. Just take it slow. Eat your lunch, change your outfit, we'll take the portkey to the church and everything will flow from there," Mrs. McNeal said. "Would you like me to burn some incense?"

"That's all right mum. I'm calm, just excited." She shrunk into her seat. "I wonder what Harry's doing?"

/-

"Are you okay?" Ron asked, leaning over to look at his friend across from him.

Harry was sitting on his chair in the lounge with his parents, his head between his knees trying to get through his second panic attack that morning.

"You were so excited. What's wrong with you?" James asked, patting his son on the back.

"He's afraid Bonnie is under a spell and will suddenly come to her senses and leave him at the altar," Fish summarized. He leaned down to his friend and whispered, "Are you going to tell them?"

Harry took a breath and his eyes glanced toward Ron in question.

Fish shrugged, _It's up to you._

Harry looked up and looked at his parents and then at Ron. "Um, I have something to tell you. And it's going to sound crazy so you have to make me a promise that you'll just deal with it whether you believe me or not and not send me to a mental institution."

"We promise," James said quickly, dying to know anything Harry was willing to tell him. Ron and Lily nodded after him and waited for Harry to tell them.

Harry sat up and sighed, glancing at Fish. "You can't tell anyone else. If you do, I'll get into trouble."

/-

Silence.

"Have you spoken to Josh about this?" Lily asked.

"Mum, I'm not nuts. Fish was there. Just trust me okay? I'm not crazy." Harry turned to look at his father. "You don't believe me either, do you?"

"What? Of course I believe you. I'm just in a little bit of shock is all." He turned to look at his son. "I believe you." He wrapped his arm around his son's shoulders and hugged him to his side.

"Well I'm supposed to tell Bonnie today after the ceremony but before she signs the marriage license, you know, incase she thinks I'm a freak and wants to change her mind. But since you're my parents I thought I should tell you first, especially since I'll be leaving for a little while and wouldn't get to tell you after I told her. And Ron, well you've been with me for a very long time, through a lot of stuff and dealt with a lot of my weirdness and I suspect you're not going to be leaving me anytime soon to spread my odd secret around the world so I told you to. But no telling Hermionie or Ginny. We can't have everyone knowing or that would upset Bonnie because then it wouldn't be much of a secret."

"I'll keep it to myself," Ron said.

/-

Bonnie paced along the wall in the bridal room in the back of the church where she was allowed to change and rest while she waited. The girls were opening her dress from its packaging and slipped it off the hanger. Bonnie had already put on all of her white undergarments and the only thing left was her strapless slip, dress and shoes. She put her arms up and the girls gently slipped it over her and it fell to drape over the floor as she adjusted it the right way. Ginny and Hermione gently took the dress off the chair where it was draped and Bonnie stepped into it and gently pulled the front up into the right position, using all her arm muscles, while Ginny and Hermionie hooked all the buttons together up the back. Once on, they helped her adjust the lacey quarter-length sleeves and the bodice into the right position. The rest of the dress carefully fell down off her waist in white silk, chiffon and lace; an elegant drift of fabric over her form and draping down the back onto the floor in a long but simple train. It was a very simple and elegant dress that was timeless and only accentuated her own beauty. It was more her than the other dresses she had tried on, from a time period she was more suited for. Early 1900's or late 1800's.

Once the dress was finally fitted and situated she turned and glanced at herself in the three way mirror and turned to make sure everything looked the same as it did the first time. She ran her hands down her waist and over her hips feeling the fabric against her skin.

She went over to the bed and sat down, making sure to lift her dress so she didn't pull on it, and Ginny passed her her shoes. She slipped them on and stood again so that her mother could put on her veil.

In a few minutes she would be walking down the isle toward her future husband, and within the hour he would be hers and she would be his.

She turned to her bridesmaids and smiled at them. Ginny was wearing a dupion dress with ruched front, a silk blue sash just above her waist, the top half a darker shade of cotton candy pink and the bottom half was a light blue and white netting underneath with blue shoes (dress by CandyAnthony¹) and Hermione was wearing almost the same dress with blue at the top and pink on the bottom with pink shoes and sash. Ginny had her red hair straightened perfectly and was lying gently in front of her shoulders and Hermione had done hers in waves.

"Ready?" Mrs. McNeal asked her daughter. Bonnie nodded and her mother back to her. "I'll be going to take my seat now. I'll see you at the reception."

She gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek, fixed her veil one last time before leaving the room.

Ginny took her flowers and handed one to Bonnie and they waited around the door waiting for her father. Bonnie felt herself wobble a bit on her shoes and reached for the wall, her bracelet pricking her hand.

"Bonnie?"

/-

"Ready?" Fish asked as they stood at the front of the cathedral, at the bottom of the marble steps.

"Do you have the rings?" Harry asked. Fish nodded. "Holy water?" Fish glanced over his shoulder at the gold bowl on the steps behind him and nodded. "Then I'm good. Raring to go." He took a deep breath and stretched out the sleeves of his jacket.

Then there was a scream in the back of the church where the bride was held and everyone silenced until Cameron came out, smiling. "She's just fainted. We'll be raring to go in just a second," he said, before rushing back.

A few moments later and the double doors at the back of the room opened slowly and Hermione was the first to step through, coming forward slowly as the sound of the music started, followed soon after by Ginny and finally his beautiful bride. She walked slowly down the isle in time with the music, staring only at him as he stared only at her, their eyes meeting across the room like lovers at first sight and they were suddenly the only people in the room. His heart began to race as her beautiful form only came closer and closer to him, fulfilling his prayer that she wouldn't be broken of a heart-wrenching spell and leave him. She was coming to him, swept up with love for him and looked to be under no thoughts of turning back.

At once she was before him, her father at her side. She broke their eye contact to turn to her father, smiled at him and he kissed her cheek, letting her go. He took her right hand and Harry's left and placed Harry's hand over Bonnie's, giving his daughter over to him with his blessing. Bonnie resumed her loyalty to Harry's eyes as her father took his seat and Harry gripped her fingers with his hand.

They walked up the stairs together, hand in hand and kneeled down together on the landing before their priest and lowered their heads. Ginny came over only for a second to adjust Bonnie's train and take her bouquet before the priest began the ceremony.

Most of the ceremony was speech and they said nothing, only bowed before God.

Before they came to the rings the priest stepped back and Harry turned to Bonnie and she turned to him on their knees. Fish came up beside Harry holding the bowl of holy water. Harry caressed his thumb over the top of the water and made the cross on Bonnie's forehead. He took her chin gently between his thumb and index finger and tilted it down to place a kiss over the cross.

After the small ceremony was over they continued, still facing each other as they placed rings on each other's fingers and said their vows.

They were the only two in the room as far as they were concerned. Bonnie only saw Harry, only his eyes and her face reflected in them, the priests voice an echo in the background so she could repeat after him.

"Do you take this man, Sir Harry James Potter, as your lawfully wedded husband, now and forever for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"Do you take this woman, Bonnevilla Jackline McNeal Price," his eyes widening as he finished her name, "to be your lawfully wedded wife, now a forever as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"If anyone here knows any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace." Female followers, now in tears that soaked their skin and made their mascara run were silenced with a spell and the ceremony came to an end.

"May I now present to you, Sir and Lady Harry James Potter."

Bonnie and Harry smiled at one another before walking back down the isle behind their friends.

Now that the ceremony was over the guests stood from their seats and left the church to head across the lawn to the reception hall where they would wait to congratulate the happy couple. Meanwhile, Bonnie and Harry were still in the church with Fish and the priest to sign their marriage certificate.

Harry turned to the priest to leave them for a moment. Bonnie was left with Harry and Fish in the room with her marriage license, still standing in her wedding dress.

"What's going on?" she asked suspiciously.

"Bonnie…this is the secret," Harry said plainly but sounding quite nervous.

Bonnie's eyes started to search from Harry to Fish and back and forth again. "That you and Fish are gay lovers?" she asked.

"What?" Harry looked back at Fish who snorted. He looked back at Bonnie. "What? No. No, I meant…this is when I'll tell you the secret. Not…no, me and Fish are not gay lovers."

"Oh, well…you paused. Fish always did look at you funny—"

"Hey!"

"Bonnie…" Harry stepped forward and collected Bonnie's hands. "I just need you to know about me before you sign because as soon as we do there can't be divorce or such. If we do this…it's done."

"So…what do you have to tell me? And just to let you know, it has to be something big to get me to keep from marrying you," she smiled.

Harry nodded. "I um…Bonnie I'm a…" he thought for a second even though he'd rehearsed this conversation a million times.

"Warrior for God," Fish interrupted from the back.

Harry turned slowly, narrowing his eyes. "Thank you, Fish." He turned back to Bonnie. "Yes, a warrior for God. I saw him when I was five and he told me that I had to train for a war that was coming. I was going to do great things for the world and soon I would understand what it was. And I did find out what it was and I defeated it and now here we are. And in return he would give me whatever I wanted. And I asked for you but…well you came by yourself so he gave me my first wish, which was my parents. So it's all over now basically. I keep all my extra strength and power and weird abilities that I received from God but I get to quit my day job."

Bonnie stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "You…you fought Voldemort, on God's orders," she said slowly. Harry nodded. "And the Suburban Children of Sub Gossip Parents?"

"Fish's idea. My followers. God didn't actually tell me to get any but it seemed easy to get people to follow. We all had something to say and I gave them the chance to say it. I tried to use God's gift to give people other than myself a voice."

"And Fish is…?"

"God appointed him my right hand man. He wouldn't leave me if I tried to kill him."

"And I…?"

"Hopefully love me despite my _clearly_ massive flaws…"

Bonnie slowly smiled. "Of course I do. I love all of yours flaws. They're a part of you and I love you." She took a step toward him and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "And if you got powers from God, does that mean the wedding night will be spectacular?"

Harry chuckled. "Let's hope so. Maybe if I haven't pissed God off as much as I think I have over the years. We did wait till marriage, so maybe that's good enough."

Bonnie pulled away and turned to the marriage license. "Ready to sign?"

Harry called the priest back into the room and they each signed the marriage license and Fish did so afterward as their witness. Then it was time to make their way over to the reception.

/-

The reception hall was beautiful and florescent. The lights were faded and purple and a bright light opened up the dance floor. Large round tables were set up around the room with white linen and black and mauve dish ware. In the center of the tables were tall, clear vases of red roses, sweet pea and lilac. In the back of the room was the wedding party table, where the bridesmaids and groomsmen sat waiting for the bride and groom.

Everyone was already seated when Fish entered the room and joined the wedding party table beside Ginny. Light music played in the background while everyone waited, talking and discussing the beautiful ceremony.

Then Fish was signaled to head to the stage and grabbed the microphone. "If I could have everyone's attention please?" Everyone turned to listen and Fish smiled. "May I announce the bride and groom; Sir Harry James Potter and Lady Bonnie Jackline Potter, a.k.a Sir St. Jimmy and Lady Hell's Angel."

He placed the microphone back in the stand as Harry and Bonnie entered the room, holding hands and everyone applauded the happy couple. They both kissed and joined together on the dance floor. "Now for the bride and groom's first dance," Fish said before mumbling softly, "Bonnie picked the song."

Harry glared at him from the floor as the piano began to play.

"Reporters are going to have a field day with the corny song," Fish mumbled to himself.

Yet Harry could care less that their song was This Year's Love by David Gray—of whom he could not complain because he was labeled alternative—because the only thing that mattered was that Bonnie was not under a spell and had signed the license to marry him and still loved him despite everything that was wrong with him. She loved everything about him.

He pulled Bonnie close to him and breathed her in as they shared their first dance as man and wife. "I love you Lady St. Jimmy," he whispered quietly in her ear as he turned on the room.

Bonnie smiled. "I love you Sir St. Jimmy."

Fish watched from the table beside Ginny who was watching him cautiously as he drank down an entire glass of wine and then began to pour another. She looked up at Hermionie who smiled sadly at her before turning to look at the happy couple.

After their dance the happy couple and the wedding court and family were led outside for the wedding pictures out in the courtyard.

When all traditions were dealt with: the removal of the garter with Harry's teeth, though Bonnie had slid it down to her ankle claiming that her father was in the room; the throwing of the garter at Sirius.

Bonnie standing backwards and throwing the bouquet into Ginny's hands (and everyone, including Ginny's father, took a glance at her "trying for inebriation" boyfriend).

Then finally, cutting of the cake—everyone taking pictures as Harry shoved a very large piece into Bonnie's face and Bonnie shoved a small piece into his mouth hoping that it wouldn't intoxicate him for the evening, putting an end to the traditions.

The happy couple went back to dancing and making the rounds to greet their guests. Ial and Ma'am had actually pulled Bonnie into a hug, telling her how happy they were for her before heading back to their table so the line could continue. The rest of Harry's followers made the usual bow and congratulations, obviously not as happy but not risking their heads to speak out. Some girls looked at Harry, started crying again and walked away. Bonnie just clung more tightly to her husband's hand knowing the same as they did, that he belonged to her now.

All the parents cried, except for Cameron, who seemingly came to terms with what he knew would happen ten years ago. He smiled, gave his daughter a hug, shook Harry's hand and told Harry to take good care of his daughter. Bonnie's mother hugged her daughter, whispered something in Bonnie's ear that made her blush and pulled Harry into a hug, the first contact he'd ever made with his now mother-in-law. "There's no one better for her," she said, what felt like the first words she had ever said to him. Harry's mother cried, made a run to the bathroom to put another spell on her mascara before coming back to pull the couple into a hug. Harry could hear her thoughts and knew that she knew he could, _You'd make such beautiful babies, so I'll pray for you both and don't use protection._ She sobbed hard as she walked away toward Bonnie's mother and they pulled each other into hugs, crying on each other's shoulders.

"At least the in-laws get along," Harry muttered.

His father pulled him into a hug, told him he would miss him and then walked away, unable to get much else out. Sirius told him what a lucky man he was, clapped him on the back and wished Bonnie good luck dealing with Harry. Remus gave Harry a hug, refrained from doing the same to Bonnie because he knew he would get shocked and wished them all the happiness in the world, reminding them to come back soon. Severus wished them happiness as well and told Bonnie he would miss his apprentice and would never find one as good as her. He told Harry not to smother her talents by having her constantly making hangover potions. Draco Malfoy wished them good luck and Luna gave them both a hug and congratulated them, and thanked them for inviting her. She hoped them the best and told them to look out for Summer Quill-Quails because they were always looking for newlyweds. Draco rolled his eyes as he followed her away.

Since a lot of the guests were followers, who didn't really say much, that part of the evening went by quickly and they were allowed back to the dance floor; Bonnie having a dance with her father and Harry with his mother and then Bonnie with James and Harry—very awkwardly for both of them—with Mrs. McNeal.

They were finally allowed to rest from their greetings and dancing when dinner was served.

Bonnie, not easily distracted by food, leaned to her side to whisper to Harry. "Let's go find an empty room. No one will notice we're gone," she said.

"Yes, of course no one will notice that the bride and groom have gone missing at their wedding," Harry said sarcastically.

"Come on. Let's go."

"We can't yet pet."

"Why not? I'm your wife now, what difference does it make?"

"We can't."

Bonnie slumped back into her seat and sighed, blowing at piece of her hair.

Harry leaned back in his chair beside her and turned to smirk lovingly at her. "Sexually frustrated love?" he chuckled quietly so no one but her would hear.

"It's not fair."

Harry took her chin in his hand and turned her face to his and whispered, "Tonight I shall make you a woman my love. But until then you must sit still and be patient." He placed a chaste kiss on her lips before releasing her face.

There were a few chinking of glasses to get the bride and groom to kiss more than they already did throughout the evening but the lack of enthusiasm from Harry's followers forced the other guests to fill in the gaps, though Ial and Ma'am seemed to be having fun forcing them to kiss every other minute—Ial tapping the glass lightly with her finger, breaking it, and Ma'am putting it back together again with a wave of her wand.

Despite the followers lack of enthusiasm they were party people—St. Jimmy's followers: sons and daughters of drug addicts, psychos and prisoners, could be nothing else—and couldn't help but be lively. James and Sirius and Remus, of course, loved them all but Lily didn't want to go home alone with her husband with all these new ideas in his head. The only follower who was really a problem was Fish, the best man, who wasn't usually a problem but tonight was practically intoxicated, though he held his liquor well. He was broody, as he had been since Harry had proposed, except more so now then ever. Harry was leaving tonight, with his new wife and neither made Fish very happy.

This was the reason everyone glared at the band when they stopped playing and announced, "Maybe it's time the Best Man made his speech, before the night comes to an end."

They were all hoping the night came to an end without Fish noticing he hadn't made a speech. No one had made a toast at all to see if they could avoid the situation entirely. But he stood when the band announced it. "Oh yes, my speech," he said, taking a sip of his wine before setting it down.

Ginny stood beside him putting her hand on his shoulder and talking quietly to him. "Maybe you shouldn't. You've been drinking a lot all night."

"Don't worry," Fish said, taking the microphone someone sent over (that someone would be killed later) "I hold my liquor well," he said into the microphone. "I won't say anything stupid."

Ginny slowly sat down, worried, and glanced at Harry where he sat at the center of his table, his head lowered, admitting defeat. He wasn't even going to try to stop Fish, who was bound to say something stupid.

"You know, I wasn't really sure what I was going to say, even just now I hadn't planned anything because… what are you supposed to say? I'm sure some best men would say something funny, some witty little story from childhood and luckily I've known Harry since I was five. Twelve years is a very long time to be friends and I wish I could come up with happy little story to tell you all but our childhood was a little darker than that. But you don't want to know that. We're supposed to be celebrating a happy occasion. What could be a more joyful occasion than two people deciding to dump all their friends, their family…their lovers…just so they can be together? Now _that_ is _true_ love. St. Jimmy loves McNeal so much he's been pushing me away since we were seven, trying to prepare me for the moment this happened. I guess I was too thick to realize it."

Harry suddenly stood and touched Fish's shoulder, trying to calm him down but Fish jerked roughly away from Harry's hand. "Don't touch me… _liar_," he glared at Harry. He turned to him, directing his speech more toward his friend now. "'Don't worry my Fishy; I shall always love you best,'" he mimicked his friend. "What a load of shit. I took care of you for twelve years and this is what I get in return? Your _absence_? It's not what I wanted." He glared at Harry, using his anger to hide his shattering soul, the one Harry could still see. "My condolences. May you both be happy together," he said, handing the microphone to Ron and walking away toward the back door, slamming it behind him as he left.

Harry turned to Ron and mouthed the words, "fix it."

Ron stood as Harry headed out the same door Fish did and lifted his glass. "To the bride and groom," he finished, half-heartedly.

Harry's followers were quick to follow, trying to help, and applauded after they took a sip and the rest of the guests followed slowly after.

"So let's get some more music going and there is still lots of cake left and Harry's going to force me to take it home if no one eats the rest of it," he lied jokingly, trying to get the stench of shock out of the room and bring back energy. Harry's followers politely got things going again, pulling Bonnie's cousins to the floor and the servers passed out more cake to those who were willing. Bonnie dragged Ginny to the dance floor, trying to lighten the mood even more by letting her guests know that if she was fine they shouldn't be bothered and to get Ginny to not think about Fish. Ron and Hermionie also joined them on the floor.

/-

"What was that?" Harry asked angrily once outside, into the dark alley-like area behind the building.

Fish was farther down from the exit, leaning against the building, his arms wrapped around himself and his head lowered, looking away from his leader.

Harry walked over, waiting for an answer.

Fish slowly looked up. "I guess that wasn't the best timing. I just…I couldn't fake happiness for your marriage to her….You know I don't like her."

"You like Bonnie just fine," Harry ordered, knowing it was true.

"I don't like her, like her. I don't want her to take you away because I hardly trust her to bring you back to me." He fell to his knees before Harry and lowered his head. "Why are you doing this to me? Am I being punished to?" he asked, his voice suddenly hurt and cracking instead of angry.

Harry sank downward and lifted Fish's face. "Fishy, I am not punishing you. I love you. You know that."

"Apparently, not enough. Why couldn't you be a normal warrior and sleep around like God lets you. I did."

Harry smiled. "You know me Fish. I hate normalcy. I must follow my own path. And you know how grateful I am for how well you took care of me all these years. You've been a good follower, the best of the best. I doubt Jesus's right hand man was better than you. My absence is not your punishment; it doesn't mean I'm leaving you. I'm just giving you a chance to make a life of your own. One that's not centered around your crazy leader. You have Ginny to think about and your band and, if you didn't notice, your girlfriend caught the bouquet."

"Yeah, I was there," he moped.

They were quiet for a second, Fish not wanting Harry to think up anymore excuses and Harry trying to think of everything he wanted to say.

"I'll come back Fishy, I promise. I won't leave you without me for more than six months. You'll probably forget about me and not think about me the whole time."

"I doubt it," Fish said dismally, looking at the sidewalk.

Harry smiled and ran his hand over Fish's blonde hair. With his other hand he tilted his friend's head up and slowly pressed his lips against his friend's. It wasn't a romantic kiss, it was a friend kiss. No tongue, just lips; a more emotional way of telling him that he would miss him to.

Fish raised his hand to Harry's neck, pulling him just a bit closer to savor every moment of closeness with his leader. This was the closest Harry had ever been to him, the most sincere kiss he'd ever given him; different from the kisses on the cheek or the forehead when they were little or the run of Harry's fingers through his hair.

Though he never wanted it to end he let Harry pull away from him, letting his own hand drop from its place on Harry's neck.

"Good enough to tide you over while I'm gone?" Harry asked, still fabulously close to his face and Fish wasn't about to ask him to move back.

"I guess," Fish muttered, still trying to make sure he had the moment cemented in memory.

"Well if it isn't, I'll be back in just six months tops. I promise." Fish didn't respond, and stayed silent, looking back at the cement. Harry lifted his head again, making Fish look at him. "I don't love her more than you Fish, just differently. And there's enough of me to share. You're more the only child than she is, so selfish."

Fish smiled just a little. "I was raised by drug addicts. You can't blame me for wanting to keep what's rightfully mine. The same way I don't blame you for being just a little crazy. I dug you out of a grave. We both have problems."

Harry smiled and ran his hand through Fish's hair again. "If I come back in six months and you're not there to greet me, I'll be just a little pissed at you and then you'll see punishment." Harry stood up and held out his hand to his friend. Fish took it. "Ready to go back inside and face the wrath of the guests?"

"Actually the party is ending in," he checked his cell phone, "fifteen minutes anyway. I think we should leave it like this. I like this."

Harry smiled. "You want me to tell Ginny—"

"Tell her I went home, scared to face her father after my little outburst or something along those lines. I'm gonna go to the house and start packing or something." He glanced at his friend. "See you in six months."

Harry lightly smiled and watched as Fish took a few steps back and turned on the spot, disappearing.

When Harry got back inside he found his party settling down a bit. Fifteen minutes was apparently too long to wait. Everyone was getting ready to go. His followers all wished him happiness as they headed out, telling him they'd miss him on Sober Day but it would have to be postponed if their leader was going on his honeymoon. They all said their goodbyes and the only people left at the end were family and Ron, Hermionie and Ginny.

Ginny asked first. "Is Fish okay?"

Harry nodded. "He's fine. He decided to just go home. I'm sure he'll contact you some time tomorrow."

Ginny nodded sadly. "Did you forgive him for making a huge scene at your wedding? You shouldn't have," she said without waiting for an answer, knowing Harry wouldn't be as angry at Fish as he deserved. "It was as though he was trying to make himself drunk."

"Ginny, if you would. When you see him, don't bring it up. I just got him to calm down and I think he'll be okay if no one talks about it."

Her face softened and she nodded.

"So he took it hard huh?" Sirius asked. "I don't remember getting so worked up when James left for his honeymoon."

"Fish is a very sensitive person. He just hides it well. Besides, I'm sure my dad's honeymoon wasn't six months long. I'm sure you were visiting all the time."

"But you went to boarding school all your life. He was fine then. That's more than six months."

"Well…Fish had people to keep him busy," he said, trying not to look at Ginny. "Besides, I wasn't married to anyone at school."

Sirius nodded.

"Anyway, let's not talk about Fish. It's rude. He was just upset, everything's fine now and we can move on."

"Well then we should all head on home," Jackline said, taking Sirius's hand. "I had your guards leave your safe in the other room. It took all four of them to get it out of the house, using wands. I hope you can get it…wherever you two are staying."

"Thanks. You guys should get going before you miss the portkey. I'll have to call Albus to make you a new one."

"He left early didn't he," Hermionie pointed out. "Practically said hello and left."

"Well he has things to do. Trying to talk the minister out of bothering me on my honeymoon and such."

They all finally said their goodbyes and the rest of them ran off to catch their portkey.

Bonnie wrapped her hand around Harry's to get his attention. "Are you okay?" she asked, carefully.

"I'm fine," he smiled. "You wanna go to the hotel now?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card from the hotel they were staying at. It was a portkey. Harry glanced at his guards who were waiting for him. "If you could load my safe into the car with the rest of our things, that would be great. Just put a feather-light charm on it, that should work."

The four nodded and left the room.

Harry looked back to his bride and held the card out to her. She smiled up at him and placed her fingers on the card.

/-

Harry was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth and trying to make sure he was still awake and changing of course. While he was out of the picture for a moment Bonnie arranged herself for his entrance. She wanted to look perfect so there would be no doubt in his mind.

She changed into a frilly black nightgown that had frills lining the bottom and the straps and stopped at her hip and underneath were little, black, silk shorts. She laid herself back on the bed trying to position herself. She sat up quickly and pushed down the sleeves suggestively and removed the tie that was in her hair then her shoes before lying back against the pillows, neck exposed waiting for him to return.

Harry walked back into the room and looked at the bed, his eyes widening. He lifted his eyebrows at her, much more covered up in a black T-shirt and boxers.

"You like what you see?" she asked.

"Very much," he said, walking toward the bed and climbing up, leaning over her. Bonnie watched as his eyes raked over her body.

Bonnie pressed her hands to his waist and ran her hands up his shirt and pulled it off over his head, her eyes widening at the sight of his chest, even more chiseled then the last time she saw it. She ran her hands over his stomach and looked up at him. He leaned down to kiss her lovingly and tenderly. He pulled back and his eyes were full of excitement. "Ready?"

Bonnie smiled and nodded, pulling him back down to kiss her.

There's no link to Bonnie's gown, I made it up in my head thinking that less was better and you can really just imagine it the way you think Bonnie would look in a vintage gown. But I was thinking of a Marie Antoinette thing with the sleeves, I just thought the huge hips were a bit much no matter how big the company. So I'll leave it up to you to decide but I envision something classic.

But anyway the Bridesmaids dresses I do have a link for. The one I envisioned on Ginny is in the center and Hermione's is the same just switched around. .com/albums/n154/New_Upsetter/?action=view¤t;=cosmobr_dec_jan07_


	49. Chapter 0: Missing Scenes

First chapter of part II is up. Here is the link or you can go to my profile page and find it there: .net/s/7002356/1/The_Year_of_Girls_and_Defeating_Dark_Lords_Part_II

Wow, I cannot believe I'm already at Part II. This will be the last chapter in Part I of Year of Girls and Defeating Dark Lords. When I post Part II you'll be able to go to my page to find it or I'll update this "chapter" with a link to the next part.

I was really surprised at the lack of reviews on the last chapter. I really thought someone would comment at least a little on Harry and Fish's kiss but I'm always surprised so... I hope you all liked it though, I only got one review.

Here's the last installment of Part I. Its not really a chapter and you don't have to read it if you don't want. Its explained below.

.

Missing Scenes

AN: These aren't important, they don't have huge input in the story so you don't have to read them if you don't want to. But these are scenes that I liked writing and I enjoyed reading in my notebook and the more I read them the more I thought you would like to read them so…if you don't want to read them you don't have to but they're here. I should have put that one chapter of memories in this since everyone seemed to find that one pointless but what am I going to do. Anyway, here are the scenes. The second part of Year of… will be up soon. It'll be separated from the first part but it'll be easy to find on my page.

.

.

(This scene takes place after Bonnie and Harry have lunch with the Queen. I didn't put this part in because it was too complicated at the time. It reveals Harry's secret with God. I was thinking of putting it in there as a clue but I thought it was pretty obvious anyway since nobody reviewed that they were shocked at the news.)

.

Fish saw Harry there at the front of the cathedral, kneeling to the floor with his face pressed to the stone, hands flat against the surface. Fish noticed that his whole body shook with sobs but it was silent.

The priest was asleep, completely unaware, in the corer of the room. All the candles were lit, the room was cold, the air was silent; the perfect environment to beg for forgiveness.

Fish walked up silently and kneeled beside his leader, placing a gentle hand on his back. Harry didn't flinch. "St. Jimmy? What happened?"

Harry sniffed. "I questioned God, Fishy. When I asked for Bonnie I never stopped to wonder if that was her purpose in life; to be with me. And when her grandmother pointed out to me last night that she had a whole life planned out before she met me it made me question whether God should give her to me. I don't deserve to mess up her life for my selfishness."

"Harry, you can't think like that. You and Bonnie love each other like no one else. You can't give that up just because her grandmother wants her to marry her cousin."

"I just wanted to ask." He pressed his forehead to the stone. "Now he's not happy with me. He hasn't been. He says I've become soft as I've gotten older. And he's right. I gave up strength for sensitivity to keep a girl impossible for me to lose."

"St. Jimmy, you could have told me. You talk to me first so these things don't happen." He wasn't sure what to do now. There wasn't much he could do now that Harry had already spoken with God. "Are you being punished?" Harry nodded, his head still on the floor, taking in the cold stone. "How long?"

"Just a few hours, here, of _putition_."

"Painful?"

"A little? Not sure yet."

Fish ran his hand over Harry's hair, letting the silence fill the room for a few moments. "Ready to go back? Bonnie's worried."

"I haven't finished begging for forgiveness yet," Harry said, pushing Fish's hand away.

"Alright, well I'm gonna call Bonnie and tell her you're not dead and make sure Tim and Tom are prepared for your return. You tell me when you're finished."

Harry finished begging an hour later with no change to his punishment. "Just two hours," Harry said, lying down by Fish's lap.

"It's not your longest," Fish commented, fiddling with Harry's fringe.

"He doesn't want to draw attention to it. He said he already punished me a bit at the Vatican when I prayed there and after the war with the priest, though I hardly felt that one with all the other pain running through my body. I shouldn't have said anything. I must have been delusional," he said, wrapping his arms around Fish's leg as the pain began to surge his body.

"Must have been." He stroked Harry's neck as his leader winced and gripped his calf at the pain.

.

.

(I wrote many versions of the Sex Talk—sometimes because I lost the other version—but I've decided on this one. Odd that I have written so many versions and still never ended up putting it in the story. I never found the perfect place to put it so I didn't. But if you want to read it, here it is.)

.

"You know what I think we should do now," Bonnie said one night at dinner.

"What's that?" Cameron asked.

"Well last year we watched one of our homemade movies. And I have one—"

"You do not. I stole it from you," Harry said.

"I stole it back. But it doesn't just have that little assembly on it. I think I stole the camera and brought it home so there's other stuff taped on it and I think we should watch it."

After much argument from Harry he was dragged into the living room where they all moved in front of the television. Cameron put the tape in labeled Sex Talk into the old VCR. The screen fuzzed for a few seconds before turning to a long white corridor. The camera was shifting a lot, trying to get a good level. The floors were shined perfectly and the walls were a cream white instead of a pure white. A young boy in a white uniform; a plain white sweater and blue slacks, walked toward the camera and turned as the camera shifted but then stopped. He turned toward the camera, which was too low to see his face.

"Bonnie, what are you doing on the floor?" he asked.

The camera lifted. "St. Jimmy's in the back room with the principal, I'm just waiting."

The young boy smiled. "What's the camera for?"

"It's new. I'm just testing it out. I thought I'd film the assembly today."

"Your St. Jimmy gonna let you participate in such an event?" he laughed.

"I don't see why not? Do you know what it's about?"

The boy just smiled before turning down the hallway. "Tell Potter I said hello."

The camera turned toward the door as the sound of someone pounding on a piano came loudly through the walls. There was some talking and more pounding on the piano. A few seconds later the door opened again and three men walked out followed by the principal, which Bonnie pointed out to the audience.

"Thank you, gentlemen. I don't know what's wrong with him. I hope we can make another appointment when he's feeling better," the principal said to the men as they walked down the hallways.

Harry walked out of the room a few seconds later with his bag, his head lowered toward the floor wearing a black button up shirt and black slacks. The men turned the corner and Harry was grabbed by his collar and shoved roughly against the wall, Harry's face turning away from him.

"What the hell was that?" the principal asked. "You know how much they were going to pay for you?"

"I don't want to leave this school," Harry mumbled quietly, looking his principal in the eye; his tone too serious for someone so small.

"You don't like it here anyway. Another little show like that and I'll force you to leave."

"I make you far too much money for you to get rid of me for that. If you were going to you would have relinquished my scholarship after I sent Ms. Val to the mental institution."

The movie paused and Harry turned to Cameron. "You sent Ms. Val away. She was a very nice lady," Cameron said.

"To you. She tried to pull me into the closet to fondle me. I locked her in that closet and whispered to her through the door that there were rats and spiders all over. Apparently she had a phobia but how was I to know that?"

"That's horrible," Jacobie said.

Harry turned back to the television and Cameron started it again.

The principal lifted his hand but then turned to look at Bonnie who was getting the entire thing on tape. "Ms. McNeal, why are you sitting in the hallway with a camera?"

"Such interesting things happen in the hallways I thought someone should document them." She narrowed the camera in on his face. "You know child abuse is illegal in a lot of countries Sir."

The principal released Harry's shirt and shoved him away. "Get to the assembly."

He walked away the same way the other men had. Harry turned to the camera. "Where'd that come from?"

"I stole it from our room."

The television stopped again. Harry sighed. "They'll explain why Bonnie and I share a room during the assembly," Harry said.

"During the Sex Talk assembly?" Isabelle asked.

"Just turn it back on."

The movie started again.

Harry walked forward and grabbed the camera and pointed it at Bonnie who was wearing a white button-up shirt and a blue skirt.

"How come you don't have to wear the uniform," Bonnie asked.

"I don't wear white," Harry said, walking backward. Bonnie followed toward the camera. "Do my hands look like they're shaking a lot? I think he slipped me some kind of drug before I played."

"They look fine. Besides the big bandage," she said, grabbing the hand that was wrapped with white gauze.

"I see colors. It's either an anti-depressant or they gave me too many pain killers for my size." He handed the camera back to Bonnie. "Don't keep that pointed at me," he said, grabbing her empty hand and pulling her along as they headed to the assembly hall.

The hall was large, all white besides a large black stage with a podium. The black folding chairs in the audience were lined evenly as though someone had taken a ruler to make sure they were all the same lengths apart. Harry pulled Bonnie toward a specific chair in the sixth row back and eight chairs to the right. They both sat down. Bonnie pulled her feet up onto her chair and pointed the camera back at him. "Say something. What happened with the principal? You never play badly."

"They were going to give my scholarship to Princeton University. They were going to _study_ me."

"I'm not stupid you know."

"You believed me when I told you my parents worked for the CIA and were currently on a top-secret under cover mission."

"I thought that was like the name thing and you and Fish told yourselves those things to make them seem real. Blame me for trying to not hurt your feelings."

Harry smiled. "They wanted to see how well I perform. But I'm too young for them. I could see it. So there's no need to worry."

"You should leave." The camera turned to face a short boy with strawberry blonde hair and one with brown. "No one wants you here. Stupid Hitler and his creation."

Bonnie gasped behind the camera. "I'm going to tell my father you keep saying that."

"And what's your dad going to do?" The boy looked back at Harry. "No one wants you here. Is the school really getting rid of you?"

"Oh no. They're just discussing how to inform the other boys that I'm moving back in with you," Harry smiled. "I hope you've found protection for when you sleep because I bought a saw this year."

The boys' faces fell and they all turned and walked away.

Everyone else filed in a few moments later and they all took their seats. There was a small barrier of chairs, one chair wide, between Harry and Bonnie and the rest of the school. Lining the barrier were girls leaving the inside for the boys who apparently wanted to stay as far away from Harry as possible.

The principal came up to the podium with a woman standing slightly behind him.

"Good morning everyone."

"Good morning Sir," everyone replied back together, besides Harry and Bonnie.

"Today we have all gathered here to discuss a very important subject. Vice Principal Ray has been keeping an eye on all of you in the hallway and has brought to my attention that some of you are eyeing each other a bit differently than normal. This is completely normal for children of your standards. This has happened before. Since your minds have developed more quickly than normal children's' your hormones feel they need to catch up. So you all may be feeling a little odd toward the opposite sex and may find yourself dating and holding hands and even kissing. However, we are having this assembly to tell you that this is not acceptable. There will be none of those things going on at school."

Harry snorted loudly from his seat and the entire school turned to glance at him as he was drawing on his Converse with a Sharpie.

"Would you like to say something Mister Potter?" the Principal asked.

"Don't let him speak," whined Vice-Principal Ray.

Harry looked up. "Well I mean, come on. Hormones are raging. They're not just going to hold it all in because you said '_no_.'"

"You seem to have done very well and you live in the girls dorms."

"Yes well I have a lot of will power. The boys can't keep anything inside, I doubt they'd keep their hormones down."

"Which is another reason why we should put you back in the boys' dorms."

"Noooooooo!" cried the boys.

"You can keep all the other boys in line."

"You can't put him back with us," one of the boys cried, standing up. "I once told him his pants were too tight and he broke my arm."

"It was an accident, you big babies," Harry replied, furious because they were and whining and at himself for not being able to control his strength.

"Now boys, don't fight. Harry has much more self-control now. I'm sure you'll all be fine."

The boys turned to look at Harry, he smiled widely, slightly evil. The boys cringed.

"Besides, we've tried getting rid of him. Mister Potter has perfected Beethoven's Tempest this semester, but has mucked it up and will now be staying with us," the principal sighed.

"I knew you'd all be much too upset if I left you. You're just so lucky."

"Last time I got lucky you broke my rib."

"You know sir I'm not sure I'll be able to tolerate the little, whiny twits. The girls are seriously pepped with drama but at least they're interesting. And if you haven't noticed, since moving into the girl's dorms I haven't broken anyone's bones but my own."

"We are seriously off topic," the principal sighed.

"This is far more important!" a boy yelled.

"Yeah. This is about life or death; a painful death or is Harry going to kill me in my sleep?" another said.

"See, they're so whiny. Like I'd kill them."

"That's enough. Boys, Mister Potter is moving back into the boy's dorms tonight and that's final."

"Better start sniffing the PineSol," Harry smiled.

.

.

(This one is not really a part of the story, I was just into the Post Secret thing and I thought over what Harry's secrets would be. Again, you don't have to read this, you can skip ahead; there are more. Anyway, I just think this gives you more insight into Harry's head. His private thoughts. These were written right after Voldemort was killed, before he realized he had inherited all of his things.)

.

Harry received an assignment from Josh to write down all of his secrets and fears on a sheet of paper—like Post Secret—except no one was going to read them. Here is the list.

I fear I hate my brother for reasons that make me hate myself.

I fear all my thoughts are insane and my therapist will tell me I'm right.

I hate that I was more afraid of my uncle than Voldemort…and he had magic to help him.

I followed a different religion than my father. I fear he's lying when he says he doesn't hate me for it.

I love how naïve my fiancé is because I'm more assured that she'll never realize how controlling and possessive I am of her.

I fear she might realize it one day and hate me for it.

I fear she might find out how truly crazy I am and leave me.

I can still remember plotting my suicide at four years old.

I hate that I miss the feel of death around the corner because without it I feel pointless.

I hate how I hate my, now, perfect life.

I hate how easy this is.

I miss being a normal, _unknown_ freak of nature.

I fear my followers are plotting my assassination at this very moment.

I think my followers hate my future wife.

I think they hate that I have favorites.

I fear I will hit a child like my uncle hit me.

I now fear fire, especially when it comes out of my own fingertips.

It scares me that I can't remember exactly why.

I fear God secretly hates me as much as I fear my father secretly hating me for worshipping God.

I hate how far away I feel from God now that I'm not as close to death.

I quietly tell myself at night, when I'm alone, that God will punish me for accepting my prize and for actually requesting one when he offered.

I hate that I took the religion my abusive uncle followed instead of my father's, who loves me.

I fear I scare people when I don't mean to and they're just afraid to tell me.

I hate when I want to defy God.

I want the Pope to die soon and leave me alone. And I hope God doesn't like him.

I hate that I fell in love because I know God hates me for it.

I hate that I think the way I do.

.

.

(This is just something I thought was cute but I just never fit it into the chapter. It happens during the second Christmas vacation when Jacobie is still trying to woo Bonnie. I'm sure you'll notice since Jacobie is mentioned. It also happens to be the night Harry just got back from the church so the reason he's so seemingly out of it is because he's recovering from the large amount of God-sent pain.)

.

"Are you just going to sit there and watch me?" Bonnie asked as she sliced some hard orange substance—Harry wasn't sure what it was—waiting for the potion to finish stirring.

"It's very relaxing to watch you work," Harry said, calmly watching her cut.

"Really?"

"You look pretty when you're concentrating."

"Oh," she smiled, blushing brightly. Harry was her fiancé, he told her these things all the time but something about the relaxed and tired sound of his voice and the fact that he was watching her work with dirty potions and chop Amtha root made her heart flutter and her face go red. He didn't seem to notice this and if he did he didn't comment.

\/

"Where's Bonnie and Harry?" Ron asked

"Uh, Bonnie went to work on a potion project and I think Harry followed her up to keep her company I guess."

"Those two," Mrs. Mrs. McNeal mumbled. She turned to smile at Jacobie, which seemed to be a signal as Jacobie promptly excused himself.

Fish, Tim and Tom excused themselves a minute later to watch him, wanting to make sure he didn't interrupt Harry's time with Bonnie, which he seemed very adamant about having with her.

.

.

(This is a missing scene from after the war when Harry is getting stalked by all of the politicians but he doesn't want to hang out with them. I just thought this part was funny and I should have put it in somewhere but it was a little short. I also thought it was a good scene because in a very small way it shows people's reaction to Harry after the war. The first year's response to him. So here…)

.

"I'm not here," Harry muttered, wandering into his father's defense class. He limped over to Remus and whispered, "Scrimmaguer is following me. You distract him, I'll hide." He then walked over to a young first year girl and snuck behind her just as the door opened. The Minister walked in and looked around before realizing he was in a classroom.

"Can we help you Minister?" James asked.

"I'm looking for your son. I saw him come in here."

"He must have rounded a corner because he didn't come in here," James lied.

"Mr. Potter, I don't have time—"

"I don't have time to stand here and chat with you Minister. I have a class to teach," he said, waving a hand in front of the class.

"If you see him, inform that he has a meeting to be at."

"It'll be the first thing on my list of things to do," James said sarcastically.

The Minister groaned before leaving.

Harry stood up from behind the seat of the giggling girl. "Little first years didn't say a word. Such loyal children," Harry smiled, lightly patting the girl on the head, making her blush madly and smile brightly at the Savior being so close.

"Harry, leave my class before the girl melts," James sighed.

"No!" the students cried.

"Aww, the little scoundrels want me to stay," Harry smiled. "I'll stay and help," Harry said, going back to the front beside his father.

"Why are you staying?" James asked.

"I have nothing better to do. The Minister only wants me for my body," Harry mumbled, smiling at the class. James stared at the side of his head. "That didn't come out right."

"No," James replied, not missing a beat. "You don't even like children."

"I have nothing better to do."

"Go to class."

"But they want me here," Harry pouted, walking back to the little girl. He looked over at her as she tried not to giggle.

"No they don't, they just don't want to learn."

"Of course they do. They're just bursting with thoughts and eager to learn."

.

.

(This one is from Halloween. I thought it was cute and kind of sad. It showed his followers waiting for him, kind of their loyalty. It was interesting and I found it so I thought, why not add it.

.

Harry was shoved out of the house and the door was slammed in his face. He pulled himself up off the porch and ran toward the door, grabbing the handle with both hands and pulling it, trying to open a locked door.

"I didn't do it. Please let me in. It's freezing," Harry yelled through the door, starting to feel the cold as it was stinging his five minute old bruise on his eye and the open cut on his shoulder. He gave up a few seconds later knowing that yelling wasn't going to get his uncle to open the door. He turned and sat down on the porch. It was Halloween night, 1o o'clock and everyone was probably asleep by now. Hours earlier children had been wandering the street, collecting treats from door to door screaming "trick or treat," including Dudley. Harry was inside being beaten.

His followers, Fish, Tim, Tom, Bonnie, Kim, Pim, and Toilet sat outside of Ms. Larose's house watching the Dursley's house, even if they knew he wasn't coming out. Their leader was inside being beaten and there was nothing they could do.

Bonnie was dressed up in an expensive fairy costume sitting next to Fish with her head on his shoulder. Fish suggested she and the girls go gather candy and they could hype Harry up once he left the house. The girls had agreed. They all were called back to their houses before Harry was allowed to leave.

He looked down the street at Bonnie's house. He really didn't want to ask Bonnie and her parents to open up their home to him just because his family was a wreck but the chances of his uncle opening the door for him or unlocking a window was zero and if he slept outside he would freeze or bleed to death. In the end he headed down the street to her house and gently pressed the doorbell. In seconds the door was opened and standing at the door was the butler, holding the door open and looking down at him. Mr. Price came up behind him, still in his suit and holding his paperwork.

"Jimmy?" he said, surprised to see him there. "What happened to your eye?" he questioned, quickly worried. "What are you doing out this time of night? It's really late."

Harry lowered his head. "My uncle… he kicked me out and he won't let me back in. I was wondering if I could… sleep here for the night."

"Of course you can," he said, assuring him as Mrs. McNeal came up behind him in her nightgown wrapped in her silk robe.

Cameron led Harry into the house and turned to his wife as Butler closed the door. "Darling, Jimmy's staying overnight tonight."

Mrs. McNeal smiled gently. "I'll go set up the guest room for you sweetie," she smiled at him. "Bonnie! Go to bed," she yelled up the stairs.

Bonnie stepped out from behind the wall at the top of the stairs, in a shimmery dark purple nightgown with white lace. "One of my eyes still has makeup on it. It won't come off."

Mrs. McNeal sighed and headed upstairs and ushered Bonnie back into her bathroom.

Cameron ushered Harry toward the guest room to set it up himself. He was starting to set up the sheets while the in-home-Healer fixed up Harry's black eye and wrapped Harry's arm with a bandage. He didn't use any spells, only healing salve and potions so that Harry wouldn't get suspicious. Bonnie ran into the room a few seconds later with her mother following her in.

"St. Jimmy, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

Harry gave her a comforting smiled. "I'm fine. It's just really cold outside," he said, as though it was such a small reason and he could have slept outside if he really wanted to.

Bonnie sat down on a chair by the bed. "You can sleep in—"

"The guest room. He's sleeping in the guest room Bonnie," Cameron said, pulling down the comforter.

"Thank you for letting me stay. I'm sorry for being such a burden."

"You're not a burden Jimmy. We're always happy to have you over. You'll stay the night and you can join us for breakfast. I'm sure you and Bonnie have some sort of meeting planned after that, right?"

Harry was quiet. He never spoke to adults about their daily workings. Even Bonnie's parents.

"Right. No discussions with adults. I got it." He patted the sheets and looked up at Harry. "We should all go to bed now. See you in the morning Jimmy," he said, as the healer left and then he led his wife out with him. Bonnie mouthed something to Harry and pointed to his bed as her father led her out but Harry couldn't tell what she was saying.

Harry kicked off his shoes by the bed and climbed under the sheets. They were comfortable and warm, far different then the ones in his own room at home. The room was much warmer to, despite the fact that the colors were all light it wasn't white so it was okay. He tucked himself warmly into the sheets, knowing it was probably a sin to ever in his life be this comfortable, considering what God gave him in the beginning. But what was sin for one night.

\/

Bonnie snuck out of her room a half hour later and looked down over the balcony. Her mother was in her room, asleep, and her father was in his office looking over his paperwork again. She could see the light shining on the hallway floor from his office.

She snuck across the hall and slipped into the guest room where it was pitch black in darkness beside a shine of light from the window shining over Harry's bed. She closed the door behind her and snuck over to him. "St. Jimmy?" she whispered.

"Hmm?" he mumbled, rolling over to look up at her.

"Can I crawl in with you?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," he mumbled, scooting over in bed.

She smiled and crawled in beside him and snuggled into his side. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. No need to worry pet."

.

(That's it. If I find more I'll add them to this page. Part II will be up soon.)


End file.
